He has, therefore, called on all stakeholders to support the city authority to clear mental patients off the streets, in line with moves to keep the city clean and healthy.

He called on the media in particular to support that effort.

“The Accra Psychiatric Hospital, which is the major stakeholder in terms of caring for mental patients, is faced with some challenges, making it impossible for it to contain the patients. This makes the effort by the AMA to clear such people from the streets a daunting task,” Mr Sowah noted.

Mr Sowah was interacting with the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, in Accra yesterday, during his visit to the Graphic offices, to discuss the way forward to making Accra the cleanest city in Africa, with the Graphic MD.

Clean City Agenda

Mr Sowah outlined a number of initiatives that the assembly was embarking on to keep the city clean, notable among which was the “Accra Beautification Project,” a strategic move to rid the city of filth.

He said the AMA had sent proposals to corporate entities to partner it to carry out the project, adding “we are also partnering Parks and Gardens to implement the “green Ghana initiative.”

Touching on law enforcement, he said the assembly was in the process of recruiting additional sanitation officers to strictly ensure that the sanitation bye-laws were adhered to.

On tourism, he said efforts were being made to develop the tourist sites in the city to attract more investors and also generate revenue for the assembly.

Challenges

For his part, Mr Ashigbey said the AMA ought to take bold steps to address the challenge of open defecation, particularly, along the beaches in the city.

He also said the wrongful siting of building on watercourses, choking of drains with plastic waste, and the emerging trend of slums in the metropolis ought to be confronted head on.

He appealed to the assembly to also tackle the emerging development of mechanic shops around the Awudome Cemetery and that of scrap dealers along the Graphic Road.

He stressed that the attainment of a clean city called for a collaborative effort of all and expressed his support for the clean city drive.

He suggested that the scrap dealers and the others should be relocated to keep them in business.