Techiman (B/A), April 26, GNA - Community Management Groups are to be formed in the Techiman Municipality to manage refuse containers. The groups are aimed at helping to reduce cost recovery through the registration of households and offered training as to how to maintain the containers.

Mr Abdul Y. Karim, Techiman Municipal Environmental Health Officer who announced this was addressing members of Friends of Environmental Clubs and Voluntary Sanitation team at Techiman after they had spent four hours in a clean-up exercise at Dagombaline in Techiman.

The members, led by the Assemblyman for the area, Mr Effah Moro, Mr Suleman Abubakari, chairman of Friends of the Environmental Club and Mr Kwadwo Frimpong, Chairman of the Voluntary Sanitation Team desilted chocked gutters and collected refuse dumped at unauthorised sites.

Mr Karim said the groups collect fees approved by the Municipal Assembly and pay a token fee to the contractors and the rest used to manage the refuse and the containers.

Mr Isaac Osei-Antwi, Acting Municipal Chief Executive for Techiman advised the people to refrain from dumping refuse indiscriminately and asked those residing in houses near gutters to help maintain them. He asked the people to constitute into watchdogs to ensure the environment was clean, adding that the Assembly would continue to expend so much on waste management.

He thanked those who participated in the exercise and stressed the need for people to always keep their environment clean to avoid contracting diseases like, malaria.

Mr Effah Moro, Assemblyman, complained about the narrow and shallow nature of gutters in the area as well as two channels leading to the main gutters resulting in some houses being flooded during heavy down pour.

He appealed to the Urban Roads Department to consider the re-construction of a drainage system in the electoral area to save lives and properties from floods.

Mr. Suleman Abubakari and Mr. Kwadwo Frimpong said the exercise would be conducted every weekend in a bid to improve sanitation in the area.