13 MMDAs receive refuse compactors

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, has handed over thirteen refuse compactors to 13 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembles within Greater Kumasi and its environs to aid a successful roll-out of the Sustainable Cleaning, Greening and Beautification of Ashanti project.

Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (ARCC), in collaboration with the Zoomlion Ghana Limited, launched the project in August 2021 to drive environmental cleanliness as well as restore Kumasi to its past glory as the Garden City of West Africa.

The project component includes tree planting, distribution of refuse bins to households, collection of sand gathered on sides of roads, wire meshing of road medians and other relevant areas. It also involves the evacuation of heaped refuse dumps, painting of curbs and ceremonial roundabouts and extensive education on bye-laws by Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies for enforcement.

Trucks/purpose

At a short ceremony yesterday, Mr Osei-Mensah revealed that the trucks are part of resources promised by Zoomlion Gh Ltd, as a partner in the project, saying “the gesture will help in the desilting of drains and the clearing of waste substances in gutters”.

To this end, the Regional Minister entreated the beneficiary MMDAs to take good care of the trucks and use them judiciously for the purpose.

“The compaction trucks will aid cleaning to be more effective. We appreciate your work and efforts in the sanitisation sector. Thirteen MMDAs are lucky to have these machines and therefore no one can complain about the absence of sanitation equipment to gather garbage and desilt gutters. No MMDCE will be spared, should he or she use the machine for private use or any other thing aside public use,” he said.

For his part, the Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies, Dr. Siaw Agyapong, promised that the private waste management company would assist the MMDAs with fuel, drivers’ salaries and other logistics.

He disclosed that some tricycles would be released, as part of the equipment to promote the project, assuring that Zoomlion Ghana Limited would collaborate with the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council in its bid to ensure a safe and clean environment.