General News of Tuesday, 27 February 2018

Source: yen.com.gh

'Accra is not a dirty city, the people in it are' - Mensa Otabil fumes

Pastor Mensa Otabil Pastor Mensa Otabil

Pastor Mensa Otabil,General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) has revealed what he believes to be the actual cause of filth in Accra.

Addressing his congregation during a sermon, he argued that the main reason for Accra's dirty streets and chocked gutters are the poor sanitation habits of persons living in the city.

"The ground never produces rubbish or bottles ... Accra is not dirty, it's the persons living in it that are dirty, Accra can't be dirty on its own" he argued.

Mensa Otabil's assertion follows a recent report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which shows that Ghana's capital city of Accra ranks as the most polluted city in the world with the measure of "very high" air pollution totalling 86.11 percent.

Sanitation minister, Joseph Kofi Adda, has come under wild criticism over the poor sanitation crisis in the country but he says it takes time to keep Ghana clean.

According to him, "the overnight solution people are expecting to get from the Sanitation Ministry will not happen just like that. It will take some time".

The minister says his ministry inherited a country heaped with rubbish across towns and cities and that it takes a long time for Ghana to become a clean city. "As a minister, my role is not to go round with a broom and wheelbarrow to sweep and collect rubbish.

I can assure you by the end of the year you will see Accra very clean,” the minister assured Ghanaian during an interview with Starr FM. The issue of sanitation continues to be of grave worry to the government. President Akufo-Addo recently engaged the services of major sanitation firms on best ways to tackle issues of sanitation in the country.