Enforce bye-laws — KAVAG urges assemblies

The President of the Kristo Asafo Voluntary Association of Ghana (KAVAG), Odehyeeba Kwame Obi Nti, has urged various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to enforce strictly, their sanitation bye-laws and arrest and prosecute people who violate them.

KAVAG is an organ of the Kristo Asafo Mission which is led by Apostle Kwadwo Sarfo. The association spearheads the numerous development activities the church undertakes across the country.
Odehyeeba Obi Nti said enforcing sanitation bye-laws would serve to deter people from throwing all kinds of waste materials into open gutters which choked and prevented water from flowing freely whenever it rained.
‘‘It is the responsibility of the assemblies to start applying environmental laws to the letter and arrest and prosecute those who dump refuse and other liquid waste into gutters,’’ he stressed.
 
Environmental bye-laws
The President of KAVAG made the statement in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Takoradi after he and other executive members of the association led members of the group to undertake a clean-up exercise in the city.
The occasion, which marked the association’s Western Regional week celebration, had the group sweeping and de-silting gutters and other drainage systems close to the Market Circle in the Central Business District (CBD) and other parts of the city.

Theme/crack whip
The occasion was on the theme: Environmental Cleanliness: A Recipe for Disease Eradication.’’
Odehyeeba Obi Nti noted that persistent flooding in Accra, the nation’s capital, which had claimed several lives and destroyed properties at great cost, was as a result of irresponsible human activities and that it was time authorities cracked the whip to deter wrongdoers in all parts of the country.
He further chastised shop owners and storekeepers who refused to clean their immediate surroundings. He said their refusal to clean their environment was detrimental to their health. He also asked the public not to look up to the government to always organise clean-up exercises, since they were the ones who stood to benefit most from a clean environment.
He urged the youth not to do anything that would disturb the peace at this time as the nation was preparing to go to the polls on November 7, this year.