Accra, Sept. 11, GNA - Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) is to arrest wayside fast food sellers popularly known as "Check-Check" who sell food without permit and health certificates at night in the Metropolis.

Mr Mark Anthony Adotey, AMA Health Officer, made this known to the Ghana News Agency in an interview on Thursday at his office. He said personnel of the Sub-Metro Public Health Taskforce have been ordered to arrest any such person found selling food without permit and health certificate.

Mr Adotey said the exercise is in the interest of the public because some of them sell near gutters, toilets and other filthy places. He advised the public to challenge fast-food sellers to produce their health certificates and permits before buying from them because "you cannot be sure of the safety of the food they sell".

Privatisation of refuse collection is not suitable for densely populated areas

Accra, Sept.11, GNA - Mr Devine Sappor, Environmental Health Officer of the Kpeshie Sub-Metropolitan Area, on Thursday said privatising refuse collection is not suitable for densely populated areas. He said such places are not accessible for house-to-house collection and the people there are usually low-income earners who, cannot pay for the service.

Mr Sappor, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview on the sanitation situation in the Sub-Metro, said the people in such areas could not even afford to pay for the present container service.

He said the sanitation situation in the area is not the best because the Environmental Health Unit did not have the necessary tools and equipment to work with.

Mr Sappor called for an intensive education to get the people to change their attitude towards sanitation adding that most of them found nothing wrong with dumping refuse into gutters instead of the containers provided.

He said the dumping of refuse into gutters choke them thus creating stagnant water that give off stench and in which mosquito breeds. He suggested that non-governmental organisations should factor environmental sanitation into their HIV/AIDS programme since cholera, which results from unsanitary conditions, kills faster than HIV/AIDS. Mr Sappor appealed to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to employ more staff for the Unit saying the present 27 could not adequately service the estimated 400,000 people in the area.

"We need more resources and motivation" to deliver more efficiently, he said.

AMA attends to fire victims

Accra Sept. 11, GNA - The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) on Thursday donated items worth over 19 million cedis to 55 fire victims at Bubuashie in Accra.

The items included sixty pieces of mattresses, 10 bags of rice, six cartons of cooking oil, four cartons of canned fish, 11 bags of second hand clothing, plates, cups, washing basins and buckets.

Mr Solomon Offei Darko, Chief Executive of the AMA, expressed regret that some parts of Accra were inaccessible because housing projects were not mapped out properly making it difficult for vehicular entry into those areas.

This, he said, made it difficult for fire tenders to gain access to fight fire outbreaks and advised that the AMA building inspectors should be invited to inspect houses under construction at every stage. Nana Akomea, Member of Parliament the Area appealed to the AMA to construct roads in the area.

The main victims, Madam Elizabeth Lamptey, who lost her four-year-old child and Mr Cosmos Ago Lamptey, the landlord of the building that was burnt, were presented with cheques for three million cedis and two million cedis, respectively.