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The Upper East Regional Minister, Ms. Paulina Patience Abayage, has admonished the people of Bolgatanga to keep their environment clean and safe.

She said one of the challenges that faced the region was littering with sachet water bags.

She said the municipality was intensifying education of the people so they would always put the sachet water bags in their bag or pocket after drinking the water until they found a rubbish container to dispose the polythene into it.

Ms. Paulina Patience Abayage

Ms. Abayage made the comments during the evacuation of some dumpsites in Bolga, capital of Upper East Region, as part of the ongoing nationwide exercise.

Clean city

"Bolga is one of the cleanest areas in the country, and we hope that when the treatment plant is finally completed, it will improve the sanitation situation in the region," she stated.

She said the dumpsites evacuation — christened Clean Ghana Agenda — was part of an ongoing emergency national refuse evacuation exercise being undertaken by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources to rid the country of aged dumping sites.

The Municipal Environmental Health Officer for Bolga, Mr. Borna Evans, said there was the need for the municipality to intensify education on behavioural change towards the management of waste.

Regrets

He said it was regretable that even though the assembly had over 1,000 waste bins placed at vantage areas and 42 large refuse containers, people still continued to litter the environment.

He said this year alone the municipal assembly had prosecuted 11 people on sanitation-related offences, stressing that the situation would continue to serve as a deterrent.

"I think that in the near future, what we need to do is to employ people to manage the dumpsite," he said.

He called on the individuals to be responsible with the disposal of waste.