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Hundreds of members of the Church of Pentecost in the Takoradi and Sekondi Metropolis at the weekend embarked on a massive clean-up exercise as a move to rid the twin city of filth.

The exercise forms part of the Church's social responsibility to sensitize members and the public on the dangers associated with environmental pollution and also challenge members to be agents of environmental cleanliness.

Converging as early as 6:00am, members within the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis swept and collected heaps of garbage around the Central Business District (CBD), market places and some principal streets, while others desilted the choked gutters around them.

The exercise was partnered by the Zoomlion Ghana Company Limited, a waste management company, the Western Regional Coordinating Council (WRCC), Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) and the Effia-Kwesimintim Municipal Assembly (EKMA) who provided personnel and logistics during the exercise.

Prior to the clean-up exercise, the Church launched its Environmental Care Campaign on the theme, “Clean Western Region, Every Day” to enable members of the Church undertake regular clean-up exercises and personal hygiene in line with the monthly Sanitation Day cleanliness.

The Campaign is an initiative of The Church of Pentecost (COP) and being carried out in partnership with the Zoomlion Ghana Company Limited (ZGL) and the government of Ghana.

Apostle Joseph Asabil, Takoradi Area Head of the Church, said the Campaign was one of the many church-state partnerships captured in the church’s vision for the next five (5) years dubbed, Vision 2023, with the overarching theme of “Possessing the Nations: Equipping the Church to Transform Every Sphere of Society with Values and Principles of the Kingdom.”

He hinted that the Campaign was planned to be tackled in four thematic areas such as education through the schools, radio stations and community information centers; clean-up exercises and community-based initiatives among other activities.

According to him, people must avoid unhealthy practices that contributed to environmental degradation like open defecation, noise pollution, indiscriminate dumping of refuse and called for attitudinal change to desist from such practices so that the country can be clean.

Alhaji Abdullai Abdallah, Western Regional General Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Company Limited said cleanliness was next to godliness and once they were able to tidy up their environment they were safe to go and productivity would be very high.

He commended all the stakeholders and the members of the Church who turned up in their numbers to make sure the exercise was successful and urged the citizens to come out in their numbers to support the efforts of the Church and the stakeholders during such exercises.

He expressed the hope that the exercise would not be a one-time event with the collaborative effort of the Church of Pentecost, and added that his outfit would evacuate all debris gathered to the dump site.