President John Mahama has said that the government is considering setting aside one day every month for a nationwide clean-up exercise.
According to John Mahama, the current two-day national exercise is not enough to deal with the scale of sanitation challenges across the country.
President Mahama made this known at Alajo in Accra after joining officials to take part in and inspect the start of the two-day national clean-up exercise.
Speaking after participating in the exercise, President Mahama stated, “Two days are not enough to finish this work, but we are going to institute it so that at least one day every month all of us should come out and clean our surroundings”.
“That is what our traditional values were about. We are taught to keep a clean environment, but when we all leave our hometowns and come, because of the anonymity of urbanisation, we think that nobody watches us, so we dump those values and we live in filth,” he said.
“We must change that attitude,” he said.
“I’m also asking the Minister of Finance; he’s already released 150 million to help with flood mitigation, that is, the dredging of the streams and all that,” the President said.
“And so the military will continue that exercise, even after we have finished this two-day cleanup,” he added.
Also, President John Dramani Mahama has told Ghanaians to stop using drains as dumping grounds.
Mahama stressed that indiscriminate disposal of waste is worsening flooding risks and undermining efforts to protect communities.
According to John Mahama, the June 29 floods should serve as a wake-up call for citizens to change their behaviour.
Mahama disclosed that the Alajo drain flooded because it has been blocked by a combination of silt, plastics, and household waste.
Mahama added, “We have to clear the drains. We just worked on this Alajo drain. It’s part of the outdoor stream. And there are two problems in it. There’s silt, and then there’s also plastics and household waste”.
“You find in a drain like this, there are Indian blocks. People discard an Indian block and throw it in the drain. Old furniture, dining tables, everything you can find in that drain,” he said.
“The drains are not garbage instruments. If you want to dispose of something, you know how to dispose of it,” he said.
Mahama further called on Ghanaians to make use of designated waste disposal facilities which include skip containers.
“We have skip trucks that leave containers all over the city. Just go and throw your garbage into the skip, and the truck will come and pick it and take it where it has to take it,” he said.
“We are taught to keep a clean environment. But when we all leave our hometowns, and we come, because of the anonymity of urbanisation, we think that nobody watches us. So we dump those values, and we live in filth. We must change that attitude,” he said.
He added, “The floods have been devastating, but we must show that we are a resilient nation and we can bounce back even better”.
“Otherwise, if we don’t do that, what we would have done would be in vain, because when the rains come, it will just wash all those silt and garbage back into the drain,” he said.
Watch the video below:
@ghnow_ President John Mahama address the press at Alajo #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – Ashraf Aboo Mu'ttassim
@ghnow_ President Mahama joins resident in Alajo to undertake clean up exercise #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – NDCMUSICHQ
