The Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) is projecting that the first batch of sites in 19 assemblies out of the 29 to be strategically sited in selected communities would be ready by the end of January next year.

The first batch of the 3,500 youth drawn from all 34 constituencies in the region to constitute the City Response Team would be deployed to the various local assemblies in the same month.

The team members are being trained by the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to help in implementing and policing the campaign.

The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Henry Quartey, made this known in Accra last Wednesday at the last meeting of the GARCC.

The minister stated that a Regional Call Centre with toll-free lines was being established to receive relevant information and reports during the implementation of the initiative for the necessary action.

Bye-laws

Mr Quartey said bye-laws on the implementation of the initiative had been formulated, gazetted and effective February next year, the enforcement would start.
In that regard, Mr Quartey said that the MMDAs were expected to ensure “the deployment of a systematic approach to sensitise residents, corporate organisations and community members to their roles and responsibilities in waste management.

"You also need to create extensive awareness of the sanitation and cleaning bye-laws and ensure commitment to its enforcement. Let me emphasise here and now that without strict enforcement of the bye-laws, we cannot achieve much so the prosecution unit of the assemblies should sharpen their skills for action,” the regional minister further advised.

He also warned that from next year, the RCC would enforce discipline and strictly apply the rules and dispelled the notion that he had slowed down on his activities.

The initiative will deploy the use of multiple approaches such as campaigns for attitudinal change, enforcement of bye-laws and logistics to drive residents not only to keep their immediate surroundings clean, but beautify them.

The campaign makes it mandatory for property owners of residential, private and public institutions and the citizenry to clean and green their frontages and all open spaces around their property.

However, a moratorium of two months has been placed for public education before enforcement of the laws begins.

“As you are aware, the Office of the Regional Co-ordinating Council has initiated the ‘Let’s Make Greater Accra Work’ agenda to operationalise the President's vision of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa,” Mr Quartey emphasised.

COVID-19 surge

The regional minister said in the last three weeks, the daily reported cases of COVID-19 had increased to an average of 80 and 100 new cases daily. Currently, the region has recorded 71,351 confirmed cases, with 70,325 of the cases recovered and 722 cases actively ill as of December 18, 2021.