Government has lost track of his vision to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa, a Director at the Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA), Mr. Patrick Aboya analysed.
At his enstoolment as a Chief in Jamestown, Accra in April 2017, President Akufo-Addo declared, “the commitment I want to make, and for all of us to make, is that by the end of my term in office, Accra will be the cleanest city on the entire African continent. That is the commitment I am making.”
But WSA, which is a Pan-African intergovernmental agency devoted to increasing accelerated access to water and sanitation for vulnerable populations in Africa is scoring the president low in meeting that target.
Speaking with Winston Amoah on 3FM’s Sunrise morning show on Monday, Patrick Aboya noted that everyone agrees with the president’s vision, but to what extent.
He acknowledged the creation of a dedicated ministry to take charge of sanitation and water issues.
However, he said, the political discourse in making Accra the cleanest city has been ups and down.
“Currently, the government is off track in achieving the aforementioned promise,” he observed.
“As a country we need a dedicated executing agency that will lead the implementation on top of the ministry to guide this project because the issue of sanitation cannot be solved by one ministry,” he said.
According to him, when another agency is created, the institutional restructuring will change and the ability to organize all the materials outside the district assembly will also change because the expertise at the assembly is nowhere close to one tenths of what is needed to accomplish such a vision.
The Sanitation Ministry need to also liaise with the Ministry of Works and Housing including the Accra Metropolitan Assembly as well as the waste management companies to do the enforcement, Mr. Aboya said.
He was however worried, as he wondered if the cabinet and other ministers share the same vision with the president in executing the project to make Accra the cleanest city.
“Achieving this is not about a ministry mobilizing people to go and sweep but there are a lot of issues that needs to be addressed,” he explained.
By Abena Amoanimah Agyei | 3news.com