Ayariga urges residents to keep surroundings clean as AMA deploys 20 tricycles

The Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mahama Ayariga, has urged residents to take greater responsibility for sanitation by ensuring waste is properly disposed of rather than leaving refuse outside their homes for government authorities to collect. He said keeping communities clean should go beyond maintaining individual homes to include the surrounding environment, stressing that sanitation was a shared responsibility.

“Sometimes people clean their home and just put the waste right in front, and then they make it the responsibility of government to come and take the waste right in front of their homes,” he said. Mr Ayariga made the remarks while commending the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for procuring 20 tricycles to support waste collection and sanitation activities across its 20 electoral areas.

He urged other metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to emulate the initiative by investing their Internally Generated Funds (IGF) in projects that address sanitation challenges. “I urge your Assembly and others to emulate this example and try and put their IGF to more productive use by making these types of investments,” he said. The Minister also disclosed that the government was working with development partners to construct additional landfill sites, while investing in transfer stations and vehicles to improve waste collection and evacuation.

AMA deploys tricycles across electoral areas The Mayor of Accra, Michael Kpakpo Allotey, said the tricycles were procured with the Assembly’s internally generated funds following requests from assembly members for equipment to support sanitation activities in their respective electoral areas. He said the assembly members had asked him to provide the equipment within one or two months, adding that the Assembly fulfilled the request last week.

“Any time I have an opportunity to talk, I say it’s not about talking, it’s about action,” he said. The Presiding Member of the AMA and Assembly Member for the Amamomo Electoral Area, Musa Ziyad, said the tricycles formed part of efforts to advance President John Dramani Mahama’s vision of making Accra a cleaner and greener city. He said the equipment would be distributed across the 20 electoral areas to help assembly members respond to sanitation complaints, evacuate accumulated refuse and address problems such as gutters requiring desilting.

Mr Ziyad explained that having the tricycles available in the electoral areas would allow assembly members to respond more quickly when residents reported sanitation problems. The initiative forms part of the AMA’s efforts to strengthen community-level sanitation and improve waste management across the capital.