Assembly 96 Acting Director

Accra, June 27, GNA - Mr James Charway Aryeetey,

Acting Director of the Department of Health of the Accra

Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has blamed Politicians for the

mountains of filth in the Metropolis. Speaking to the GNA in an interview, he said Politicians

always interfered anytime the technocrats wanted to apply

the byelaws of the Assembly to the letter. He said because of expediency the Politicians for fear of

losing votes prevailed upon the technocrats not to enforce

the byelaws, especially those pertaining to sanitation and

health. Mr Aryeetey asked: 93The squatters at Sodom and

Gomorah sent the AMA to court but lost so what is preventing

us from executing the court order?" He said 93no matter how much we are socially developed

by means of infrastructure we cannot achieve much if the

mentality of the people continues to remain the same=94. Mr Aryeetey suggested to the Government to allow the

regulatory commission to fix a realistic fee for people to pay

for dumping refuse to enable AMA to generate revenue to

improve environmental sanitation in Accra. He said: "This is the only strategy when implemented

would ensure that the Public Health Department achieves its

stated objective of promoting and safeguarding public

health." He said about 80 per cent of the people did not pay for

the dumping of refuse they generated yet they complained of

unsanitary conditions in the communities.