Kumasi Named Among 15 Cleanest Cities In Africa
Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana has been named among the top 15 cleanest cities in Africa in 2020, according to a ranking which considers cities which prioritize cleanliness and solid waste collection.
Kumasi, which has consistently been named as a top clean city over the years, placed 12th position after Accra placed third on the list topped by Kigali, Rwanda.
The list named the cities as Kigali-Rwanda, Windhoek-Namibia, Accra Ghana, Gaborone – Botswana, Dar-es-Salaam-Tanzania, Johannesburg-South Africa, Port Louis Mauritius, Tunis-Tunisia, Cape Town-South Africa, Nairobi-Kenya, Libreville-Gabon, Kumasi -Ghana, Algiers-Algeria, Asmara-Eritrea, Ouagadougou -Burkina Faso in that order.
The feat follows sustained sanitation strategies by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA)
The mayor of Kumasi, Hon. Osei Assibey Antwi explained that the KMA has over the years followed some sustainable strategies and a series of activities in the area of Solid Waste Collection including the provision of the door-to-door and communal waste collection services.
Defending the ranking, the KMA boss said the KMA took steps to regularize the operations of tricycles (Aboboyaa) to further improve solid waste collection within the metropolis by identifying these services providers by colours and registering them with serial numbers to ensure the effective use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at all times and to ensure that all tricycles filled with waste are covered with nets to avoid spillage.
The KMA, the mayor indicated, intends to improve private sector participation by regularizing the solid waste collection contracts by procuring solid waste containers to be placed at the communal collection sites and sustain its position on the continent.
He said a number of these communal collection sites require improvement through the provision of skip pads with roofing under partnership with private waste companies for the provision of trucks and bins to enable the KMA carry out house to house refuse collection.
In line with the President’s vision of making Ghana clean and the Assembly’s own mandate of providing a conducive environment for the inhabitants and businesses, the KMA launched the “Keep Kumasi Clean and Green Project” with the aim of restoring Kumasi to its “Garden City” status.
This project saw to the planting of thousands of seedlings of various species at various locations and the installation of hundreds of bins at vantage points within the Central Business District.
The Assembly also received DAF Refuse Compaction Truck, 40ft Ford Compaction Truck, two Pick-ups, ten Tricycles and five Tricycles donated by VIP Bus Company Limited and Zoomlion Ghana Limited to support the street sweeping and drain cleansing operations.
He said the KMA recognizing that effective waste management does not only entail storage, collection and transportation of waste but also providing the appropriate place for proper disposal or reuse of the waste materials, single handedly managed the Landfill when the Contractor, J. Stanley Owusu Limited vacated the site due to non-payment by devising a means of ensuring that things are properly managed within our limited resources by Procuring a landfill dozer and communal containers under the Ghana Urban Management Pilot Project.
Following the measures effectively put in place, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly was in 2019, adjudged the best Liquid Waste Management Strategy in Ghana in a Sanitation Challenge organized by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, with support from foreign partners which was competed for by about 139 other Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the country. This remarkable feat came with an award of UK£400,000.00 in a competition which was geared towards bringing transformational change to the city.
With financial support from the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana, the KMA has implemented a number of projects and programmes to improve liquid waste management in the metropolis. These include Improving WASH in 4 Public Schools in the construction of four 10-seater gender sensitive, disability friendly institutional water closet toilets with mechanized borehole and overhead tank for four schools namely Amankwatia, Anyaano, Bantama State Boys and St. Cyprians M/A Cluster of Schools, Strengthening Enforcement of Sanitation Bye-laws establishment of Sanitation Court and provision of logistical support, procurement and distribution of 15 Motorbikes to all the Sub Metro Environmental Health and Sanitation Units to facilitate their movement to the communities.
Under this package, the Assembly improved the Liquid Waste Stabilization Pond at the Oti Landfill Site through the desilting of ponds and storm drains, construction of concrete platform and headworks for direct discharge, installation of coupling hoses and gravelling of 2km haul area to the site.
Additionally, the Assembly constructed a 1km fence wall around the Asafo Centralized Sewer System to halt encroachment by slum dwellers and auto-mechanics.
Comprehensive WASH Database for city-wide inclusive sanitation planning and implementation, procurement of three laptops to aid data collection, synthesis and analysis and the training of key staff in selected Departments and Units with skills needed for data gathering.
The Mayor disclosed that the success story of KMA is underlined by organization of periodic health education programmes in churches, Schools, Lorry Terminals, Mosques, FM Stations and routine house to house inspection through the Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit of the Assembly.