Graphic, Zoomlion clean up Gbese

The Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), in partnership with Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZLG), last Saturday embarked on a clean up exercise in Gbese, a community in the Greater Accra Region, to rid the area of filth.

The exercise, also supported by the Gbese Traditional Council, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA), is the first of such exercises lined up for Graphic’s national  sanitation campaign.

The year-long campaign, which is in partnership with the ZGL and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is aimed at drawing attention to the worsening sanitation conditions in the country.

The exercise

Apart from the volunteers from the stakeholders who participated in the exercise, some celebrities from the Ga community such as Odartei Milla Lamptey, popularly known as Gasmila in the music industry, and popular boxer and entertainer, Braimah Kamoko, also known as Bukom Banku, were on hand to support and use their influence to draw more volunteers for the exercise.

The Gbese Mantse, Nii Ayibonte III, was represented by some of his traditional council members but he later arrived to provide moral support.

The presence of these personalities also attracted the residents who came in their numbers to take part in the clean up.

By 6a.m., the volunteers had assembled for the day’s work which involved the disilting of gutters, dredging of drains, sweeping of the shoulders of the streets as well as gathering and disposing of refuse.

As part of the activity, structures that were seen to be obstructing the easy flow of water were demolished to help address the issue of flooding in the area.

Zoomlion provided technical support by providing the trucks to collect the waste gathered as well as all the working tools required for the exercise.

Clean environment

The Director, Marketing of the GCGL, Mr Franklin Sowa, indicated that for proper sanitation to become effective, there was the need to directly involve the local communities.

He said it was against this backdrop that the exercise was taking place in the community with support from the indigenes and the traditional council.

“Keeping a clean environment is also the responsibility of the individuals and the community and not just the authorities. As far as we have taken this initiative upon ourselves, we will work with the community to ensure the area becomes hygienic,” he said.

Additionally, he said the company would also embark on a sensitisation campaign to educate the residents on ways to manage waste.

That, Mr Sowa said would help to change their attitude towards management of debris to help address the issue of sanitation in the area.

“It is extremely worrying to see this volume of filth in the national capital. So far, the initiative is causing change and we will ensure that eventually, this area becomes a true reflection of a modern city’’, he added.

Sustainability

The Business Development Manager  of ZGL, Mr Seth Mclean Acquah, said the company agreed to team up with Graphic for the campaign as its contribution towards the government’s agenda in making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

To sustain it, he said ZGL would station some of its waste collector trucks in the area so that day-in-day-out, all refuse generated in the area would be collected for a proper disposal.

“We have the equipment and the logistics and we are going to make sure that sanitation challenge in this area will be a thing of the past, we will provide all the necessary logistics to ensure that,” Mr Acquah assured.

Enforcement

The Chief Executive of the AMA, Mr Mohammed Adjei Sowah, commended the chiefs in the area who took it upon themselves to lead the effort for the clean up exercise.

“Indeed, for the first time as they provided the leadership , this exercise has received support from all and sundry within the community. This is something which hardly happens and we commend them for that,” he said.

Mr Sowah indicated that the next phase of the exercise would be an enforcement of the AMA bye-laws to ensure that persons who dumped refuse indiscriminately were arrested and prosecuted.

“We’ve been doing this exercise each year and it’s about time we started enforcing the laws because we cannot continue cleaning people’s dirt each year. We’ve seen that cleaning the environment is not very effective and the law must work,” he said.

“The local and indigenous communities in Accra appear to be the black spot in the region and we cannot allow that. Most of the Ga people in government have their roots here, we appeal to them to support us in diverse ways to ensure sanitation challenges in this area are addressed,” Mr Sowah added.

Everyone’s responsibility

Nii Ayibonte III said keeping a clean environment was everyone’s responsibility, and urged residents to discard the notion that it was ‘the duty of the government or Zoomlion,’ as has become the popular phrase.

He emphasised the impact of an unhygienic environment, stressing that “when disease breaks out due to a dirty environment, it is we the citizens who suffer in our homes before it becomes a national issue, we thus, have the responsibility to keep our environment clean, beginning in our homes and communities.

The Gbese Mantse commended his people for the high turnout and also the GCGL and its partners for choosing his community to begin the campaign, emphasising that the exercise would be a regular feature in the community.

The next exercise, Nii Ayibonte III indicated,  would take place in a fortnight to coincide with the lifting of the ban on drumming and noise-making.