Accra, Aug 25, GNA - Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) on Friday met in Accra to adopt an Environmental Sanitation plan to rid the country of filth and discuss ways to implement effective waste management systems.

They also discussed the adoption of strategies such as the use of modern technologies to increase revenue mobilization. Presenting a paper on the sanitation plan, Mr Demedeme Naa, Head of Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, said an eight member Implementation Team had been set up to examine lapses in environmental sanitation bye-laws.

He said the plan hoped to bring back rapid results teams, popularly known as the "sama-sama" system; incorporate beautification into the cities and towns, and ensure effective waste collection and disposal in low and medium class communities.

Mr Naa said there was lack of sanitary labourers in most assemblies to clean the streets, drains and markets. According to him, the Ministry would engage National Service Personnel to serve as sanitary overseers to augment the low numbers of sanitary officers.

He noted that there was the need for a national integrated waste management law to further empower all assemblies to enforce their bye-laws more effectively if the country could attain a middle income status by 2015 and succeed with the National Health Insurance Scheme. Mr Naa urged all assemblies to develop their own bye-laws and intensify public education on the existing ones, adding that sanctions to the bye-laws should be regularly revised by using the penalty unit. On the revenue mobilization plan, Mr Kwabena Agyei Mensah, Deputy Controller of Accountant General Department, said the plan would advocate the change of public mentality on payment of taxes and adoption of effective business approaches.

He recommended the adoption of portable mobile payment collection devices that would issue automatic receipts to tax payers to curb fraud and manipulation by some tax collectors.

Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, who chaired the meeting, urged the MMDAs to be practical in their approach since efforts to address sanitation problems in the country had not been that successful. Mr Asamoah Boateng also expressed concern about the haphazard location of kiosks and mechanical shops in the cities, saying, "we hope to clear all those on the streets to a suitable sites to make way for the establishment of more recreational facilities". He said the Ministry hoped to put in place a waste management mechanism that would keep garbage temporarily in structures and reiterated his commitment to ensure teamwork and deepen decentralization.