Enforce Sanitation Bye-Laws to Ensure a Clean Accra--Palmer-Buckle

The Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Charles Palmer-Buckle, has attributed insanitary conditions in the city to the sense of indiscipline and called on city authorities to enforce sanitation laws and put in place proactive measures to address the issue.

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle said to ensure a clean city, it behoved on city authorities to educate the citizens and provide the needed support to prevent littering and the indiscriminate dumping of refuse in open spaces.

The Archbishop was speaking when Mr Mohammed Adjei Sowah, Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), called on him to discuss strategies by the assembly to deal with the insanitary conditions in the city and sign the Clean Accra Charter.

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle urged Ghanaians to be conscious of the negative impacts of dropping plastic in the environment and admonished all to desist from the practice.

He explained that scientifically, when one dropped a plastic, it took a 100 years to decompose and that the implications were serious, if over 2 million people littered the streets of Accra, daily.

The Archbishop stressed the need for synergy in order to work for the greater good of the people and pledged to support the AMA to ensure a clean Accra.

"My Pope came out with a document a few years ago titled: 'Care for our Common Home...' He talked about sanitation, climate change and a whole lot of challenges. So we have it as a responsibility and duty to conscientise our people to care for our common home. We have as many as 22 Catholic churches and over 4,000 members in Greater Accra. I owe it a responsibility to the AMA to be ready and willing to collaborate and contribute to any project that involves the people," he said.

He, therefore, pledged to inform all Catholic priests in Accra to talk about sanitation issues during their sermons as part of efforts to complement the Assembly's public education measures.

Mr Sowah thanked the Archbishop for his commitment towards the Clean Accra Project, adding that the signing of the Charter reaffirmed the Catholic Church's commitment to ensuring a clean environment.

He noted that religious leaders were a major influence in society, hence the AMA's call on them to add sanitation issues to their sermons or wherever they found themselves.

Mr Sowah also informed the Archbishop of measures to beautify the city of Accra in the coming days.

The Clean Accra Charter is a set of guiding ethos to advance the vision of making Accra one of the cleanest in Africa.

The charter recognises that residents, neighbours, workers, institutions and visitors to the city have a fundamental obligation to put forward their best efforts on a daily basis to ensure a clean, healthy and safe environment in Accra, now and in the future.

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