It was wrong for the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Joseph Kofi Adda, to have blamed Zoomlion Ghana Limited for the filth in Accra, Ama Ofori Anwti, Executive Director for the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA), has said.

According to her, the blame game won’t help in the struggle against the sanitation related problems across the country.

The Minister, who was speaking at a Sanitation Forum in Accra on Friday, 9 March 2018, singled out Zoomlion Ghana Limited for failing to ensure that the waste in the environment are collected and disposed of properly.

He said: “Dr Agyapong [CEO of Zoomlion Ghana Limited and Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies], I’m sorry to disappoint you here…finding solid waste everywhere I feel really disappointed and if you were to ask me why this thing is so, I will put the blame squarely on Zoomlion. Zoomlion, to me, is the cause of it”.

Mr Adda said it was the responsibility of the private waste management company to supervise the cleaning of the environment. However, “they are not sweeping and collecting everyday”.

But Ms Antwi told Chief Jerry Forson on the Ghana Yensom show on Accra 100.5FM Monday March 12 that : “For the minister to blame Zoomlion directly, I don’t think it was in the right direction because we also have to ask, did the government also deliver its part of the contract given to the company?

“The last time we heard the Minister saying he has only 8 staff that is why he can’t work and now all of a sudden he is blaming Zoomlion. For me this is not a blame game, we need a policy framework or a master plan that will ensure that by 2020 Accra is the cleanest city.”