Use sanitation campaign to create jobs — LPG

The founder of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Mr Percival Kofi Akpaloo, has urged the government to use its sanitation drive to create more jobs for the unemployed.

He said engaging more hands in the sanitation campaign would help it to achieve its objectives of keeping the country and especially the capital clean.

Sharing the party’s perspective on keeping Ghana clean in an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Akpaloo said stakeholders must also come in handy to provide waste bins at vantage points to encourage people to drop in their waste.

He thus commended the Graphic Communications Group Limited and Zoomlion Ghana Limited sanitation campaign as an exercise that would instil awareness among Ghanaians.

He, however, said the exercise should not be left in the hands of only the two organisations since the sanitation problem in the country was big.

Slums

In line with the party’s vision of keeping the country clean, Mr Akpaloo said the LPG would be seeking to build affordable single rooms to encourage slum dwellers to relocate to such areas.

He said residents would be paying affordable monthly rents without the pressure of paying two-year rents, which keep most of them at the slums.

In such a situation, he said, all the slums would be demolished to help maintain the sanctity and beauty of such places.

Uncompleted buildings

The LPG leader said there was also the need to identify owners of all uncompleted buildings and other structures and support them to complete them under an agreement where the facilities could be rented at an affordable price.

That, he explained, was necessary to prevent Ghanaians from making such places their abode.

He pointed out that people in such uncompleted buildings and containers often did not have the facilities to dispose of their waste and thereby end up littering their environment.

Constant clean-up

Mr Akpaloo also called for the institution of clean-up days and engaging personnel who would go round to ensure those who littered their environment face the law.

He said it was also important that the government undertook a deliberate exercise to cover all drains to prevent people from throwing the waste into the drains.