Clergy entreated to use pulpit to support Operation Clean Your Frontage
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Henry Quartey, has entreated the clergy and corporate institutions to use their pulpits and platforms to support the 'Operation Clean Your Frontage' initiative.
He said collaboration among key stakeholders, including the clergy, would help achieve the behavioural change needed to make the campaign successful for Accra to become one of the cleanest cities in Africa.
Advertisement
In a meeting with the clergy and heads of corporate institutions to brief them on the exercise, Mr Quartey said it was only behavioural change that was needed to make Accra a clean city even though the government was undertaking other programmes to ensure it achieved that objective.
The minister said with the huge following of the clergy, using their pulpits to inform their members of the exercise would have a positive impact on the campaign.
"You are a focal point and the foundation on which this programme needs to take off from. Get your members actively involved in diverse ways.
"The exercise is expected to run till 2025. It is not an imposition, but it should be part of our lives".
For corporate institutions, Mr Quartey entreated them to partner and support the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) financially to make the exercise successful.
He said a campaign that was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo some years ago was a clarion call on citizens to keep the metropolis clean and green for a healthy life.
Campaign
The minister further said there would be a mass sensitisation programme on Tuesday to get the support of the citizenry for the campaign.
Other Trending Stories
He said about 30,000 people, including 20,000 national service personnel, officials of NADMO and other agencies would be hitting the streets on that day for a period of 10 days.
"They will hit the streets with flyers at the markets, shops, businesses to educate people about the need for them to get involved in the exercise," Mr Quartey added.
They would walk through the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Kaneshie First Light, Abeka Lapaz, the Central Business District (Okaishie/Makola), among others.
"So along the stretch from First Light, Obetsebi, Circle on February 1,2020, there should be no hawking, no selling," he said.
To sustain the exercise and ensure compliance, a task force of about 4,000 people, including a City Response Team who are currently being recruited would be deployed in March this year.
He also said there would be a secretariat for the exercise and call centres where people could call and inform authorities of areas where there was waste for collection.
The minister advised landlords, business and property owners and corporate institutions to ensure their frontage was clean, stressing that failure to comply with the laws would attract sanctions.
On the relocation of onion sellers and scrap dealers at Agbogbloshie, Mr Quartey described the exercise as successful and that 80.23 acres of land was reclaimed.
He said aside from 15 acres of land allocated for a project under Agenda 111, no land had been allocated to anybody or an institution.
Support
The clergy pledged their support for the exercise and appealed to the government to ensure it was sustained in order that it does not become an exercise in futility.