Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, the President of ESPA, who disclosed this at the end of year party for the members of Tricycle Waste Collection Association (TWCA) in Accra on Sunday, said the move was to support President Nana Akufo-Addo’s vision of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

He said the tricycles were being manufactured in China and the some of the executives of the TWCA would be taken to China next couple of weeks to inspect the new tricycles before they are shipped into the country.

The President of ESPA said the tricycles would be given to the members of the association on credit and pay in installment in two years.

In addition, he said, ESPA would distribute shovels, nets, Wellington boots and brooms and nose masks to members of the TWCA free of charge and said a taskforce would be formed to ensure that the beneficiaries use the safety gadgets to protect their health.

Dr Agyepong said ESPAs would also soon launch the Tricycle Route Collection Award to reward tricycle operators who were keeping their area of demarcation clean all the time and also use safety gadgets in their operations, indicating that the winner of the award would be given GH¢10, 000 and also enjoy a trip to China, while the second will take GH¢7, 000 and the third will take GH¢5, 000.

He advised the tricycle operators not to dump waste indiscriminately but to send them to the Waste Transfer Stations, namely Achimota, Mallam, Korle-Bu Mortuary Road, Teshie, Nsumia, Awutu Senya, Adjen Kotoku for onward evacuation to the landfill sites.

President said ESPA was developing a waste digital application that would enable individuals to take shots of waste and send to ESPA for prompt collection and evacuation of the waste.

He said the theme for ESPA’s 2019 environmental campaign was ‘Pick it up,’ intended to conscientise the citizens to pick waste on the floor instead of waiting on waste collection officials to do so.

Dr Agyepong said ESPA was collaborating with the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources to distribute free dustbins to every household under its One-Dustbin-One Household campaign.

The ESPA President lauded President Akufo-Addo for setting up the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources to create the enabling environment to tackle waste in the country  saying, enforcing the sanitation laws would go a long way to promote environmental cleanliness in the country.

The Deputy Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Michael Gyato in his address expressed worry about the low sanitation service delivery of 15 per cent, unlike water which was at 62 per cent.

“We cannot disappoint the President and we must work to ensure that the city is kept clean,” he told the tricycle operators and urged them to desist from dumping waste on the streets and ceremonial routes of the country.

He said the his Ministry would soon come out with a league table every three months to indicate which areas of the city were kept clean and the tricycle operators who operated in those areas would be awarded.