Accra, July 13, GNA - Sixty-four identified cattle owners in the 11 Sub-Metros of the AMA, are to appear in court for non-compliance of notices served them to relocate their animals in the Metropolis. The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Public Health Department, which issued the summons, said the cattle owners would appear at the Adjabeng Court '2' in Accra on Wednesday, July 21, 2010. Dr Simpson Anim Boateng, Director of AMA Public Health Department, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview on Tuesday, said the Assembly had drawn up a programme of activities to raid all illegal cattle rearing points in the Metropolis to ensure clean environmental sanitary condition.

He said the choice of Accra for the Millennium City Project now demanded special programme that would give the Metropolis a new look to enable it to play its expected role. Dr Boateng said operators of all commercial toilets in the Metropolis had been asked and warned to ensure cleanliness at their premises to avoid arrest and prosecution. He noted that about 80 per cent of the people in the Metropolis did not obey the by-laws on environmental health, which was the basis of the poor waste management in Accra.

"It's too common these days to see problems that constituted nuisance or health hazards such as, noise pollution, odour, wooden kiosks springing up indiscriminately, smoke pollution with human or solid waste and improper sitting of development, which calls for stringent measures to step up hygiene in Accra," he noted. He said the Head of Prosecution, Mr Daniel Opare, Chief Environmental Health Officer at the AMA, had been directed to ensure that any health officer, who failed to comply with the directive to arrest and prosecute offenders, would be sanctioned. When the GNA contacted the Greater Accra Regional Environmental Health Officer, Mr Jonas Amanu for his comments on the new developments in Accra, he said, the measures had become necessary to curb the practices of people leaving their animals astray in many parts of the city. He said these animals defecate indiscriminately at public places, therefore, severe measures taken by the AMA to deal with people, who were guilty of such practices to make them more responsive to environmental issues, was in the right direction.