The Birim Central Municipal Planning Co-ordinating Unit (MPCU), led by the Municipal Planning Officer, Mr. Awudu Azizu has undertaken a day’s inspection tour of some ongoing Clean Ghana Sanitation Projects at Akyem Oda.

Accompanied by some Heads of Department and other Officials of the Assembly, the team inspected all the 20 and 16-seater type B toilet facility undertaken by Ghana First Company Ltd, a waste management company, at Nkwantannum A, Abontonkonkom, Community 6, Community 1, Sordie, Kyeremim, Zongo, Aseneye and government hospital.

After completion, each 20-seater modern toilet facility will have a 20-seater water closet, 20 bathrooms, 20 urinals, one dressing room, one laundry and two extra rooms to be used as stores.

In addition, the toilets will be provided with an image sensor flushing system, an automated vendering machine for access control, a reception fitted with television sets, a sofa seats and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras.

The facilities will have two positive drilled boreholes each as a source of water supply for hand washing to improved hygiene. It will be operated solely on solar energy as a source of electricity, with the national grid as a backup.

Mosquito-repellent bulbs will be used at each facility to prevent malaria infections. The operation of the facility will be a 24-hour service with 15 personnnel manning each facility, five attendants for every eight-hour-shift.

The four-hour inspection which saw the team traversing the lengths and breadth of the Municipality was to assess the progress of work and spur the contractor on to work towards completing the works on schedule.

The Municipal Planning Officer also explained that, the visit was also to see the kind of challenges the contractors faced, and the support they might require for a quality and early completion of the works expected to transform and turn the fortunes for all citizens, particularly those in that suburb of the Municipality.

He further explained that, the works were in fulfilment of the government’s promises to the people of the Birim Central Municipality to enhance sanitation to eliminate outbreak of diseases.

The team also inspected, the ongoing construction of foot bridges at ‘Jesus, Jesus’ and Community 6 as well as the construction of Institutional toilet with solar mechanized borehole under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) at St. Francis and a completed school park under the Zongo Development Fund at the Oda Zongo.

At Community 6, the Assistant Engineer of the Assembly, Mr. Michael Nuako asked the contractor executing the project to cast concrete to set the base for the column boxes and wield the hand rails of the bridge to the iron bars before filling the column boxes with concrete.

He expressed worry about the continuous usage of the partially completed foot bridge by residents which in his view was depreciating the ongoing works of the foot bridge.

He however urged the contractor to properly segregate the coarse aggregate from the fine aggregate to allow the cement paste to settle on the surface of the bridge.

At Sordie, the team expressed satisfaction at the pace of work as some of the masons were busily seen executing the project.

The team was also satisfy about the progress of work at the initial construction works on the culverts that links the intersection of the main ‘Bonka Adjei’ storm drains but the contractor executing the project was not on site.



However, the team met the Urban Roads Engineer, Mr. Richard Debrah who is supervising the project. In an interview, Mr. Debrah expressed worry about the delay of the project and urged the contractor to attach some level of seriousness to the contract in order to complete it as scheduled.

He further stated that, the materials used by the contractor, Somotrust Company Ltd, for the contraction of the link road to the storm drains is of inferior quality and has since rejected it because it does not meet road works standard.