Accra, Jan. 12, GNA - The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on Thursday asked landlords who have converted toilets into rooms to revert them or face court action.

Mr Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, Chief Executive Officer, AMA who gave the warning noted that due to the rush for accommodation in the city some landlords had converted toilet facilities to accommodate people.

"It is criminal for landlords to fail to provide tenants with toilets when renting out rooms," he said in an address to chiefs, opinion leaders, the press, and benevolent organization on the upcoming clean-up exercise scheduled on January 28 in the Accra metropolis. The clean-up exercise, expected to be undertaken in all sub-metros, would start at 0500 hours and end in 1200 noon.

Mr Blankson said the Assembly was studying building plans in the city to ascertain which houses did not have toilets. "The Assembly would start issuing summons to landlords of houses which do not have toilets as a way controlling filth in the city." On the filth menace in the city, he said the Assembly was developing a mechanism where residents would be allowed to pay a token fee for throwing filth in waste bins.

He noted that only 20 per cent of the city's population paid for disposal of waste, pointing out that 80 per cent did not pay anything. Mr Blankson noted that most hawkers, did not sweep away filth they created leading to heaps of refuse in the city. "The bye-laws of the Assembly stipulate that trad ers after selling their products are to sweep all filth."

He said the AMA had asked the road transport unions to clean various lorry parks.

Mr. Blankson observed that AMA had been slow in implementing its bye-laws saying, "this time, we will strictly ensure the assembly's bye laws are enforced."

"The situation in Accra is getting out of hand; we need to step up to make Accra clean and reduce government expenditure on hospitals as most cases reported at the country's hospital are malaria-related." He said the Assembly had received support from the Civil Service, Military and other security services and urged traditional rulers and church leaders to join in its crusade against filth. Mr. Blankson said the waste collectors association had pledged to provide vehicles to collect all waste.

On the activities of hawkers, he said the assembly would soon come out with plans on them as the Christmas was over. Captain Frederick B. Amoah-Twum (Rtd), President of the Waste Collectors Association, urged the public to make use of bins provided by the AMA and avoiding littering.

He pledged his Association's commitment to support the AMA in its campaign against filth. 12 Jan. 06