The campaign is an audacious policy by the GARCC and initiative of the Regional Minister, Mr Henry Quartey, aimed at dealing with the sanitation challenge in the city.

The 30,000 people, made up of 20,000 national service persons, officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the security agencies, will also engage in a massive sensitisation in the central business district, principal markets and covergence places such as the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and Abossey Okai to encourage residents of Accra to get involved in the GARCC’s initiative.

The 30,000 people are expected to first assemble at the Black Star Square to receive briefings on the programme before they are deployed to their various working areas.

Activities

A line up of activities, as announced by the GARCC, includes a 10-day sensitisation programme which will see the team move from house to house, markets and shops with flyers educating the populace on the need to clean their environments, as well as the health and other benefits associated with the project.

The campaign will also encourage the greening of the environment.

Aside from the sensitisation programme, the GARCC team will also organise clean-up exercises in some selected areas, including Kaneshie First Light, the Obetsebi-Lamptey Roundabout, Abeka-Lapaz, the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Farisco, UTC and Okaishie.

Consequently, vehicles will not be allowed to stop at the selected areas, while hawking or selling on the streets will also not be permitted.

Landlords will also have to ensure that the exercise is carried out in their homes and along the streets in front of those homes.

The initiative follows the passage and gazetting of the bye-laws under the policy which are to be implemented by the 29 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the region.

The policy is to make it mandatory for all individuals and organisations to take responsibility for the cleaning and greening of their immediate environments.

The GARCC, as part of preparations, has engaged key stakeholders, including the clergy, heads of financial institutions, the media, market leaders, commercial drivers unions, among others, to make the programme, which is to transform Accra into one of the cleanest cities in Africa, a success.

Meanwhile, a task force of about 3,500 people, to be known as the City Response Team, which will ensure the sustainability of the initiative from now to 2025, is being recruited, to be deployed by March to ensure that people’s homes, shops, offices and the streets are “delivered” of filth.

Time is now

Ahead of the exercise, Mr Quartey has met key stakeholders to brief them and solicit their cooperation and support for its successful implementation.

The stakeholders dialogue included the leadership of all the transport unions, the Ghana Union of Traders Associations (GUTA), market queens and some municipal chief executives (MCEs).

He also visited many of the local assemblies to pilot the initiative, while some of the assemblies did so on their own.

The minister vowed to ensure that the streets of Accra were decongested for a cleaner society.

Mr Quartey expressed regret over what he described as the high level of indiscipline in the Greater Accra Region, saying it was time to address the issue.

“The time has come for us to ensure that there is discipline in our region, and for that matter our country,” he noted.

Mr Quartey explained that the project was a national one, not one meant to score any political point, and urged everybody in Accra to be part of the exercise.

“This has been a project we have been yearning for. Now is the time to implement it. We are printing about 50,000 T- shirts for distribution. This project has no political language,” he had indicated at the meeting with stakeholders.

To make it effective, he said, the assemblies were to establish transfer sites for the reception of waste.

He said the government, in collaboration with Zoomlion, was acquiring compaction trucks for the various assemblies in the region to aid the management of the waste to be collected during the exercise.

Long-term strategy

Mr Quartey expressed the hope that the project would come to stay, and that whichever government took over in 2025 would continue with the initiative.

A committee, he indicated, had also been set up to develop long-term strategies to deal with the issue of sanitation, security and indiscipline in the country.