Upper East Gears Up Cleanup Campaign

Mr Samuel N'lary, Chief Director at the Upper East Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC), has directed Municipal and District Assemblies in the Region to draw up action plans towards a massive cleanup exercise aimed at ridding the Municipalities, Towns and Villages of filth.

Such action programmes should be designed along short, medium and long-term basis to ensure sustainability and effectiveness.

In the same vein, Heads of Government Departments in the Region should also mobilize their staff to tidy up the premises at their various workplaces every week to ensure a clean and healthy environment.

Mr N'lary gave the directive at a meeting with Heads of Government Departments, Boards and Corporations in Bolgatanga. The purpose of the meeting was to brief attendants on the outcome of a recent trip he and some selected heads from the Region made to Accra on the invitation of the Government Transition Team.

He said President J.E.A. Mills had reiterated his determination to fulfil his campaign pledge of instilling a culture of cleanliness in the Ghanaian society within his first 100 days in office.

In line with that objective, there would be a nation-wide cleanup campaign involving public organizations and private homes, which would be carried out under the supervision of locally composed committees to ensure compliance.

Mr N'lary said a monitoring team from Accra would visit the Regions by February 24, 2009, to assess the level of seriousness each region would attach to this all-important national assignment.

Following a lengthy deliberation, the meeting unanimously decided that staff of Government establishments in the Region would carry out a mandatory cleanup exercise in their offices every Saturday. There would also be a regional launch of the campaign on February 7, 2009 to set the programme in motion, and to create awareness about the exercise among the people.

To this end, a nine-member local committee was composed to coordinate the programme. Committee members would among other things monitor the performances of departments and agencies; promote public education; ensure that the tempo of the exercise was sustained, and to recommend any other activities that would ensure environmental cleanliness in the Region.

The committee comprised a representative each from the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC); Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE); Ghana Red Cross Society; Town and Country Planning; Information Services Department; Ghana Police Service; Zoom Lion Company and Environmental Health Department.

The Chief Director urged Assemblies to get local contractors and other public-spirited individuals in their areas to release tipper trucks and other vehicles for the exercise, as no funds had been earmarked for it officially.

He cautioned that heads of departments, who failed to implement the directive in their workplaces, would be "passing judgment on their performances".