By James Esuon
Swedru (C/R), July 30, GNA The Agona West Municipal Directorate of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Department is to prosecute recalcitrant residents whose actions and inactions destroy the environment.
It has equipped staff to prosecute sanitation offenders under its operation “saman- saman’ to help maintain a clean environment.
Mrs Ernestina Kumah, Agona West Municipal Environmental Health and Sanitation Officer, who made this known after a six-hour clean-up exercise at Agona Swedru, cautioned residents to desist from littering the streets and dumping refuse into gutters and unauthorized places.
The exercise organised by the Swedruman Council of Chiefs, was part of activities marking this year’s Akwambo festival which commenced on Sunday, July 14 and is expected to end on Saturday, August 18.
She said communicable diseases had sprung up in certain part of the country and the environmental directorate would not sit down unconcern for the residents to experience such sickness in the Municipality.
The Environmental Health Chief reiterated calls on the residents of Agona Swedru to participate in clean-up exercises to keep their frontages tidy to avoid outbreaks of cholera and other sanitation diseases.
Mrs Kumah said the Agona West Municipal Assembly had chalked some successes in the neatest league table in the Central region for over seven years and was poised to maintain the position as far as the best sanitation Assembly was concerned.
She urged residents to report people whose plots of land were bushy to her outfit for them to quickly punish such people.
She admonished the residents, especially parents, not to send minors to refuse container sites to avoid dumping on the streets, which could attract a penalty.
Mr Christian Ocran, Agona Wet Municipal Director of Zoomlion Waste Management Company, commended the Swedruman Council of Chiefs for the clean-up exercise.
The Municipal Director of Zoomlion supported the proposed monthly clean-up exercise, which would go a long way to ensure cleanliness in the Municipality.
He called on the residents to patronise the household maxi dust bins policy initiated by Zoomlion as part of measures to reduce refuse dumps on streets and other unauthorized places.
Mr Ocran said sanitation issues needed collective efforts and not the Zoomlion or the Assembly alone.
Nana Kweku Esieni V, Regent of Agona Swedru, called on the residents to keep their environment clean to avert the outbreak of diseases, adding that there was the need to prevent mosquitoes to avoid the new dengue fever that had been reported in some parts of the Central region.
He said the Swedruman Council of Chiefs was consulting and collaborating with the Agona West Assembly to organise monthly clean-up exercises in the Municipality.
The Regent of Swedru cautioned residents to refrain from dumping refuse on the streets and unauthorised places which was unlawful, adding that the chiefs would not hesitate to apply severe sanctions against anyone found culpable.
GNA