The Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, has commended the government and public for a successful National Sanitation Day (NSD) operation, while announcing that a concrete masterplan was being developed to permanently clean up Accra.
He explained that the core of the plan involved replanning the business district heart of Accra to include a purpose-built market with adequate services to sustain trade.
The King, after joining the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy, and Religious Affairs, Ibrahim Ahmed, the Accra Mayor, Hon. Michael Kpakpo Allotey, and Sempe Mantse, Nii Adotey Otintor II, for the clean-up exercise on Saturday, October 4, declared that rhetoric must now turn into action.
“We are determined that Accra must be clean,” he stated.
He revealed that a central pillar of the new plan involves a major redesign of the city’s business district.
According to the Ga Mantse, this initiative will create a proper, serviced market to prevent traders from overflowing onto the streets.
Furthermore, he confirmed that the problem of single-use plastics was a key focus of the new strategy.
Meanwhile, in a boost to the government’s NSD initiative, Zoomlion Ghana Limited has committed massive logistical and equipment support for the nationwide exercise.
Speaking on the sidelines of Saturday’s clean-up operation the Director of Monitoring and Service Quality at Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Mr. Ernest Kusi, confirmed the company’s full backing for all municipal assemblies across all sixteen regions.
The exercise commenced at the AMA headquarters, proceeding through the principal streets of the Central Business District (CBD) of Accra, Kwame Nkrumah Circle, and Agbogbloshie Market, among other areas.
It involved sweeping the shoulders of the roads, removing heaps of sand from the drains, and clearing weeds on the median of the roads. Mr. Kusi disclosed that Zoomlion’s support includes dedicated workers, compaction trucks, essential protective equipment like gloves and nose masks, and other waste management gear.
“Zoomlion is committed to supporting all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) nationwide to ensure that the National Sanitation Day is not just a one-day event, but continues to advance the President’s Clean Ghana Agenda,” he affirmed.
“As a leader in sanitation, Zoomlion cannot sit idle, we must participate. So, this morning, together with the Assembly, we are actively taking part. Our workers, dressed in their sanitation apparel, are sweeping, desilting drains, and weeding in designated areas assigned by the Assembly.
“We have also provided logistics, including compaction and skip trucks, so that when refuse are gathered, it can be transported to final disposal sites.”
According to Mr. Kusi, Zoomlion has been part of the nationwide planning process for the National Sanitation Day.
“Our staff members across all the regions are actively participating. We have supplied logistics such as brooms, nose masks, gloves, compaction trucks, and skip trucks to support the exercise across municipalities and districts,” he disclosed.
Aside from providing logistics and equipment to the national clean-up operation, the Zoomlion Director of Monitoring and Service Quality indicated that they were also investing in public education, stressing that behavioural change was crucial to the success of this agenda.
“We believe sanitation is about lifestyle change. If people adjust their attitudes towards littering, it will make a huge difference. We run the Zoom Kids Programme in schools across the country, where we form clubs to instill sanitation habits in young people from an early age. This way, they grow up with positive attitudes toward cleanliness.”
He stressed that it was also crucial for the assemblies to put in place enforcement measures to punish those who litter.
“Together with education and enforcement, we believe we can achieve lasting change,” he said.
According to Mr. Kusi, sanitation was a shared responsibility, indicating that “it is not only the government’s duty but citizens must also play their part.”
To this end, he appealed to Ghanaians to keep their environs clean, desilt drains, weed overgrown areas, and ensure the proper disposal of refuse in containers at home.
“Every first Saturday of the month is National Sanitation Day, and I expect all citizens to participate,” he charged.
Furthermore, Mr. Kusi indicated that proper waste storage was equally important to the success of the National Sanitation Day initiative.
He explained that without waste bins, refuse cannot be collected and disposed of properly, thus urging households to call on Zoomlion for bins at a very subsidised cost.
“Anyone who needs a waste bin can contact Zoomlion Ghana Limited. We provide them at a subsidised cost, with service fees payable over time,” he averred.
“Negative attitudes such as indiscriminate littering harm us all and the waste we throw away pollutes the environment and brings diseases back to us. Let us all change our lifestyle toward the environment so that together we can enjoy the clean Ghana we desire.”
Earlier, addressing participants of the clean-up exercise at the forecourt of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) head office at Tudu, Accra, the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Ibrahim Ahmed, encouraged Ghanaians to cultivate the determination to keep cities and the environment clean at all times.
“This, however, must not only be seen as a physical exercise. It is also a mental and attitudinal one. Beyond the sweeping and cleaning, we must work on resetting our mindset and changing our behavioural attitudes,” he stated.
Hon. Ahmed Ibrahim used the opportunity to appeal to the media to support the government’s national sanitation agenda by helping to shape positive attitudes toward cleanliness.
The National Sanitation Day was officially launched and re-introduced by President John Dramani Mahama on September 6, 2025, at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), Ogbojo–Madina, with the goal of uniting Ghanaians to keep the nation clean.
Story By: Dennis Ato Keelson
