Fourteen residents and business operators in the La Dadekotopon Municipality were yesterday summoned by the Assembly for failing to clean their frontage.
These persons were summoned when the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly (LaDMA) embarked on a pilot exercise of the “Operation Clean your Frontage” campaign in the municipality in Accra.
They are to appear before the Assembly and answer for their failure to clean their frontage as required by the new By-Law. They face between 30 days to six months imprisonment or up to 100 penalty units fine (GHS1,200) if found guilty.
The exercise, which is under the supports of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), was led by the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of LaDMA, Mr. Solomon Kotey-Nikoi, some officials from Zoomlion and some Municipal Environmental Health Officers.
The team visited areas including the La Market and La Lorry Station, and they observed that almost all gutters where choked with refuse with lots of litter scattered around.
Zoomlion officials went along with their waste collecting trucks and had to immediately clear piles of refuse along various streets and from choked gutters.
Again, many cars were found parked on unauthorized sides of various road in the municipality.
Most residents and business operators claimed there were not enough waste bins around to keep their refuse, and that was why they dumped the refuse along the streets.
Others claim they clean their frontage daily, but the rains carried some refuse from different places into the gutters in front of their homes and shops.
Addressing journalists, the MCE, Mr. Kotey-Nikoi said keeping the environment tidy was the responsibility of everyone, and not just the Assembly.
“We are doing this together to improve the health conditions of residents and the environment so we entreat all to partake in the exercise,” he said.
According to him, the pilot exercise was to caution and educate people on the campaign and urge them that it was mandatory for all individuals to ensure their environment was clean.
“As we have educated them and I am hopeful they will prepare themselves ahead of the sanctions which would begin from 1st February,” he said.
The LaDMA MCE emphasized that the by-laws that have been passed and gazetted by the 29 Assemblies in the Greater-Accra Region allowed for the enforcement of the directive.
