<<Print>>

In its bid to fighting the Malaria and Cholera epidemic, Government has taken delivery of about 60 trucks from benevolent private organizations to ensure that just as is done in other countries, many roads in Accra would be swept and fumigated. The mass sweeping and fumigation exercise would be carried out between the hours of 11pm and 4 o� clock am every day, until the cities are rid of filth, a security capo told this paper on condition of anonymity over the weekend. �Government is targeting about 170 trucks for each region but it would have to start from Accra, so in the coming days; the 60 trucks would be dispatched to various vantage points in the region so start sweeping and fumigating some areas. But it would be done in the night because we don�t want to inconvenience anybody,� the influence peddler said. As a lead up, Minister for Local Government Julius Debrah and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Monday cleared a mountain of garbage after more than two months of neglect. The exercise was carried in selected communities in Accra namely: Agbogbloshie, Abossey-Okai and Kokomemle, in the evening, after market women had ended trading. During the exercise, Hon Debrah lamented that, �the closure of the only landfill site in Accra a couple of months ago led to the indiscriminate dumping of waste, coupled with recent rainfalls created ideal conditions for the spread of cholera." But, he said, with the creation of two more landfill sites at locations close to areas where a lot of waste is generated, he was hopeful transportation of waste to the landfill sites would be facilitated, thereby reducing instances of refuse heaps in communities. The Vice President who was at Monday's clean up exercise at Abogloshie to �observe the accumulation of waste in the area� also announced that it was �crash programme by government to immediately remove refuse heaps in Accra and allow the city to manage on a daily basis, the filth that is collected especially in the markets�. The Mayor of Accra, Alfred Okoe Vanderpuje was optimistic heaps of refuse in the Agbobloshie would soon be a thing of past. According to experts, the programme, if managed well would rid the city of filths thereby reducing the reported cases of Malaria and Cholera.