Kumasi, May 3, GNA - Madam Augustina Gyamfi, Acting Ashanti Regional Director of Department of Women, said that women as agents of change should lead the crusade against filth to keep the environment clean and healthy.

This, she said, would kelp to prevent the outbreak of diseases such as malaria, cholera and typhoid, whose treatment had been a drain on the country's economy.

Madam Gyamfi was speaking after a clean-up exercise, organised by the Department in collaboration with Teachers Educational Workers Union (TEWU) of the Trades Union Congress and Zoomlion Waste Management Limited, in the Kumasi Metropolis on Friday.

The programme that involved sweeping, weeding, desilting choked-gutters in some parts of the metropolis, formed part of events marking this year's Women's Week celebration in the region, under the theme "Men and Women Working Together for a Better Ghana". Madam Gyamfi stressed that women had a crucial role to play in keeping the environment clean at all times adding "Let us try to cultivate the habit of cleanliness in our children so that they will grow with it".

She said that the status of Kumasi as the Garden City of West Africa should be sustained by ensuring clean environment at our homes, markets and workplaces. Madam Gyamfi commended the participants for their communal spirit and gave the assurance that the Department would continue to organise such exercises to help rid the metropolis of waste.