Low participation in Operation Clean Ghana

The Zoomlion-Government collaboration in the 'Operation Clean Ghana' exercise, on Saturday embarked on clean-up in Ga district assemblies but with a low turnout.

The exercise kicked off at 6am in the various assemblies within the Ga district and Adenta assemblies, but as at 10am not a single person had reported in their various areas where they were supposed to work.

Some of these areas were the Aviation road, Ofankor, Tantra hill, Pokuase, Amasaman, Madina market, Zongo junction, Dome and Taifa, under the Ga West, East and Adenta assemblies.

A week before the exercise, several announcements were made in almost all the radio stations for all organised bodies, stakeholders and residents in these areas to participate in the exercise.

 Markets were ordered to be closed during the exercise to allow the task forces clean the filth in the market but none of them responded.

Instead of a general clean-up, Zoomlion and some of the assembly members were the only ones who undertook the exercise.

In some places like the Madina market, market women were busy selling whiles some stood with folded arms watching those desilting the choked gutters, as if they had no idea of what is going on.

Though the exercise ended successfully, the assembly members and their collaborators were highly disappointed in the turn out, particularly in these assemblies as compared to the previous ones they began with.

The Accra Zonal Supervisor of Zoomlion, Richard Amfo-Otu also expressed dissatisfaction about the tepid response and participation of Ghanaians towards making Ghana a clean country.

'Zoomlion and the government have invested many resources into sanitation, therefore if at the end of the day, Ghanaians don't support us, all our hard efforts will prove futile', he said.

The Director of Environmental Sanitation at the Ministry of Local government, Naa Lawson Demedeme, who was present at the exercise disclosed that, with this attitude the government's vision of cleaning the country with the 100 days and even beyond may not be fulfilled because each day people litter the streets in spite of the fact that dust bins have been placed at vantage points across the country.