Metropolitan, municipal assemblies celebrate sanitation achievements

Ten metropolitan and municipal assemblies (MMAs) in the Greater Accra Region have celebrated the results of a 100-day action plan intended to improve sanitation in their respective assemblies at the start of a two-day workshop.

They included the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), Adentan, Ashaiman, Ledzokuku-Krowor, Ga East, Ga West, Ga South, Ga Central, La Nkwantanang-Madina, and the La Dade-Kotopon municipal assemblies.

The results which were made possible through a rapid results approach (RRA), was supported by the World Bank’s five-year Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) sanitation and water project intended to provide water and sanitation services to urban communities within the operational area.

The project is also aimed at addressing acute sanitation and water challenges confronting the urban communities, particularly the low income areas in the 11 municipalities of the GAMA.

The RRA is a popular method for improving performance within large organisations and multi-sectoral partnerships, and uses specifically structured 100-day rapid results initiative (RRI) goals to accelerate change and capacity development.

The achievements

During the workshop, representatives from the MMAs, led by the metropolitan and municipal chief executives, exhibited some of their achievements to the RRI teams who in turn shared what they had learnt.

They also discussed how best to sustain and scale-up the proven innovations and the improved patterns of collaboration during the project.

For instance, during the 100-day period in the Ashiaman Municipal Assembly (ASHMA), it registered up to 200 households and constructed 17 household toilets.

That was to enhance behavioural change in over 20,000 people through a comprehensive sensitisation on the need to own a household toilet.

The Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), whose goal was to ensure that some selected drains in 10 areas were obstruction free, completed eight drains to reduce flooding and responded to two cases of obstruction within three days.

For their part, the Adenta Municipal Assembly (AdMA), which also shared the same goal of ensuring that flood-prone storm drains from Nsuonano to Nanakrom were obstruction free, achieved their objective and there has since been no cases of obstruction.

The assembly also registered some 180 houses for house-to-house refuse collection services to prevent residents from dumping refuse into storm drains.

In a bid to attain their goal of developing a food hygiene checklist to ensure that at least 300 food vendors in La Maa Mii and Agyemang  in the La Dade-Kotopon municipality complied with the list, the assembly  was able to register a total of 393 food vendors , monitored 320  of them  and also undertook clean-up exercises to promote clean environments.

Sanitation and Prosecutions

 In their quest to ensure that about 60 per cent of households in the Kwabenya Old Town upgraded their toilet facilities to meet the sanitation-related building codes by September 30, 2015, the Ga East Municipal Assembly (GEMA), issued court summons and prosecuted 20 landlords.

Out of the number, three were fined by the courts and ordered to complete their toilets before November 30, 2015.

The assembly also instituted a revolving fund to provide credit facility at 10 per cent interest rate per annum for prospective landlords to upgrade or put up toilet facilities.

For the Ga West Municipal Assembly (GWMA), which had the goal to reduce the number of cholera cases in Amasaman and Pokuase to not more than 20 cases, and also reduce cholera-related deaths within 100 days, the assembly through some regular clean up exercises and the establishment of a Rapid Sanitisation Task Force, had so far not recorded any cholera case within the municipality.

It also successfully prosecuted six sanitary offenders with the help of the task force during the period of the project. With the support of the Chief Justice, the GWMA, has since August 2015, set aside Fridays to address sanitation-related cases in the municipality.

The assembly also sensitised residents of Pokuase and Amasaman to hygiene and prosecuted 144 sanitation offenders.

The Ga Central Municipal Assembly (GCMA), in ensuring that at least 100 compounds in the area had new toilets that indicated their use and cleanliness for at least four weeks by September 2015, also succeeded in convincing 150 landlords in the Olebu community to commit to owning household toilets.

The Ga South Municipal Assembly took the mandate of ensuring that beaches in some six communities in the area, namely Oshiyie, Langma, Ayigbe Town, Tsokome, Kokrobite and Bortianor were clean by building two-seater toilets at the beach.

The Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA) also reduced open defecation and the dumping of faecal matter at the Nungua and Teshie beaches.

Achievements laudable

Sharing his opinion on the achievements made by the MMAs, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Emmanuel Agyekum, expressed the hope that the workshop would take stock of the improvement in the work processes of the assemblies and institutionalise them for government to do business and deliver services to its citizens.

“I wish to see the innovative ways being replicated across the MMAs so that we can keep Accra clean and change the behaviour of our citizens regarding sanitation.”, he said.

The Project Coordinator of the GAMA Sanitation and Water Project, Mr George Asiedu, revealed that the second RRI would be launched in January 2016 but urged the MMAs to make adequate budgetary allocations to support its effective implementation.