By James Esuon
Agona Swedru (C/R), Jan. 20, GNA – There was massive turn up at the Agona West National Sanitation Day exercise organised by the Municipal Assembly in collaboration with the Swedruman Council of Chiefs.
It formed part of the monthly programme instituted by the government to improve sanitation.
The five-hour exercise led by Assembly Members and community leaders, saw residents desilting chocked gutters, sweeping the streets and weeding public places.
Present were Agona West Municipal Assembly staff, chiefs and queen mothers, traders, drivers, store and shop owners and staff of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Department.
Addressing the people after the exercise, Mr Eric Gyamfi Odoom, the Agona West Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) urged the residents to make cleanliness be their watchword, to help avert communicable diseases.
He said it was sad that some residents continued to dump refuse into gutters and littered the streets, with the notion that workers of Zoomlion were to clean them.
The MCE warned that sanitation offenders would be severely dealt with and pledged the Assembly’s preparedness to procure more shovels, wheelbarrows, brooms and other implements to support the monthly clean up exercises which had come to stay.
M Freeman Goku, the Director, Central Region Environmental Health and Sanitation Department, urged residents of Swedru to maintain the best sanitation Municipality status in the region.
He expressed concern about the lukewarm attitude of some residents towards sanitation and outlined plans by his office to intensify education on issues regarding poor environment, because public education had helped reduce court action against offenders.
Mr Mark Dzodzodzie, the Agona West Municipal, Environmental and Health Officer, thanked the residents for their massive turn up and reiterated calls on them to keep their environment clean.
He said waste tonnage generation in the Municipality had doubled and urged residents to abide by the rules, to avoid any punishment.
Nana Kweku Esieni V, the Regent of Agona Swedru praised the residents for their active participation in the exercise and appealed to the authorities at the Assembly to purchase more tools for the next exercise.
GNA
Edited by Alice Tettey/ Christabel Addo