By Emmanuella Owusu
Ashaiman, Oct .03, GNA —The Ashaiman Municipal Assembly (ASHMA) has marked the World Clean-up Day with an intensive three-in-one sanitation and dredging exercise, targeting chronic environmental challenges along the major Gbeblemɛ storm drain at the New Town Bridge.
Leading the exercise, Mr Freeman Tsekpo, the Ashaiman Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) expressed deep concern over the misuse of the municipal water channels by residents who had turned sections of the storm drain into unauthorised refuse dumps.
Addressing assembly staff, machine operators, and community members, he outlined a dual-pronged strategy to permanently resolve the sanitation breach.
“We are using extra hands and heavy machinery to make sure that we remove all the refuse dumped at the site; secondly, we are setting up a satellite monitoring system here so that after this exercise, we will not see this kind of abuse again,” he said.
As part of community policing initiatives, the MCE announced that local pig farm owners operating near the area, had been engaged to act as environmental wardens to deter illegal dumping.
Speaking on the structural status of the critical waterway, he noted that the Gbeblemɛ channel served as the primary storm drain for Ashaiman, running under the jurisdiction of the Hydrological Services Department of the Ministry of Works and Housing.
The MCE reiterated the assembly’s continuous lobbying efforts to upgrade the aging earth drain into a modern, fully constructed concrete storm drain.
He noted that previous overflows notably causing major floods in 2010, 2018, and minor incidents up to 2024 have severely threatened residents.
He, however, highlighted that massive dredging and desilting works undertaken at the Adjei-Kojo exit point successfully prevented severe flooding during recent seasonal rains.
Mr Tsekpo acknowledged that the pressure on local sanitation infrastructure remains exceptionally high as Ashaiman’s population exceeded 300,000 alongside intense commercial activity, emphasising that to counter this, the assembly was aggressively pushing waste segregation policies separating plastic and organic waste backed by municipal partnerships with smart plastic recycling networks and firms like Safisana, which converts organic waste and faecal matter into electricity.
He commended assembly members, unit committee members, and residents for rallying behind concurrent cleanup exercises across various electoral areas, to safeguard public health and promote sustainable municipal development.
GNA
Edited by Laudia Anyorkor Nunoo/ Christabel Addo
Reporter: Emmanuella Owusu, GNA