Minister for Works and Housing Lawyer Samuel Atta Akyea joined hands with authorities of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) in their just ended two-day sanitation exercise carried out within the central business district CBD.
The activity held on the night of Friday 22nd May 2020 and during the early hours of Saturday 23rd May 2020 at specific commercial areas which were Adum, Dr. Mensah, Alabar, Asafo and Pamapaso.
The focus was to get chocked drains within the CBD cleared off all accumulated solid wastes so as to allow free flow of water.
Litters left on the streets were also swept and disposed.
The agility of the event was felt so much when Lawyer Samuel Atta Akyea , Member of Parliament for Subin Constituency Hon Eugene Boakye Antwi and the Mayor for the Metropolis Hon Osei Assibey played exemplary role as they picked up a shovel and scooped out mud that had obstructed the smooth flow of liquid waste in the drains opposite the Asafo Pentecost Church.
Other participants were staff of the assembly, fire service persons, workers of Zoomlion, military among others.
Drains blocked by foreign materials were blown by fire fighters for easy flow of water.
Minister for Works and Housing Lawyer Samuel Akyea stated in a press briefing that the nation as it stands now is facing a national challenge i.e the state of drainage system.
A number of open drains he noted have gotten themselves chocked with garbage dumped into them by people.
This he underscored has led to the blockage of the passage way of water.
Premised on weather forecasters report that this year’s rainfall pattern will be above the normal, the Honorable minister alerted that there will be a lot of rain and that if drains are not cleared, the nation will record so much floods with its attendant consequences which won’t be good for the country.
“…We have covid-19 in the background. If we should have flood that means the nation will receive double slap…that is the reason why we have come to this great city…voluntarily we should desilt our drains.
We should not be prompted by money. We should voluntarily go into the gutters and desilt so that when the rainfalls are very heavy it will have a good passage to where it belongs rather than killing people, destroying their jobs and destroying properties”, he said..
Mayor for Kumasi Hon Osei Assibey in his statement endorsed the support of the minister .
He was however worried over why some traders dump refuse onto the streets instead of disposing them into dustbins mounted by authorities at vantage locations within the CBD.
He identified the assembly’s biggest challenge that is people creating filth and dumping them anyhow.
He therefore advised perpetrators to desist from such act and throw their waste at the right place and not on the street.