The Ablekuma Central Municipal Assembly (ACMA) has removed tonnes of debris from the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Market and surrounding areas after a mass cleaning and decongestion exercise.

The effort was in concert with the “Let’s Make Accra Work” initiative being spearheaded by the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (GARCC).

It coincided with the anniversary of the flood cum fire disaster of Accra on June 3, 2015, which killed some 154 persons and injured many others.

It was also to encourage environmental cleanliness among individuals, households and community members.

Already, similar exercises have taken place in some parts of the region, including the Graphic Road and some flood prone areas, to ensure that Accra reflected a modern day city.

Exercise

Yesterday’s four-hour exercise was also to ensure that people, including traders operating on the pavements of the area, were moved, and the areas cleared of filth.

Volunteers, who included residents and some spare parts dealers, showed up as early as 6:30 a.m clear gutters and drains, sweep the shoulders of the streets, gather and dispose of refuse, among others.

It also saw some army and police personnel in attendance to provide security.

The mountains of refuse required the service of a backhoe loader to help move the refuse into buckets of tipper trucks to be carted away.

Some faulty vehicles parked along the shoulders of streets were towed away to allo for easy flow of traffic in the area.

Averting future disasters

The Chief Executive of ACMA, Ms Mariama Karley Amui, expressed gratitude to the spare parts dealers, especially for their participation in the exercise, saying it was a good step to forestall future disasters resulting from a possible filth-induced flood.

“Today is June 3 and we are doing this in memory of the victims of the disaster and also to alert people that the little filth that we create goes down there to choke the drains and causes disaster when it rains,” she said.

Ms Amui noted that due to the busy nature of the market, it had become a preferred destination for traders in and out of Accra, which, she said, had created some congestion in the area and adversely affected some businesses because of the difficulty one faced driving through the area.

She said it had, therefore, become imperative that unauthorised structures were removed to bring back sanity in the area.

“As an assembly, we’ve tried several times to undertake this exercise, but we always failed. This time around, due to the bold step taken by the Regional Minister to make Accra work, he ensured that this exercise became a success,” Ms Amui stressed.

Sustainability

She said the assembly would deploy a task force to monitor the area and ensure that it did not return to its former state.

“We are going to enforce the laws very well to ensure that this is sustained,” Ms Amui stressed.

The Co-Chairman of the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association, Mr Clement Boateng, commended the assembly for executing the exercise, and expressed the hope that it would help address  sanitation problems, and ultimately boost their businesses.

Mrs Mariama Karley Amui (right), Municipal Chief Executive for Ablekuma Central, speaking to some journalists during the clean-up. Pictures: ESTHER ADJEI

Source: graphic.com.gh