Takoradi July 4, GNA- The Shama-Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly is planning to introduce identification cards and uniforms for taxi drivers and emboss special identification numbers on all taxi cabs in the area, as part of measures to strengthen security in the Metropolis towards the Africa Cup of Nations 2008.

The Assembly has also planned to ensure that the environment was kept clean and adequate security provided before, during and after the tournament.

Mr. Philip Kwesi Nkrumah, Chief Executive of the Assembly, who announced this on Tuesday at the first meeting of the first session of the assembly at Takoradi.

He said "Let every person in the metropolis show responsibility towards the cleanliness of his or her immediate environment." Mr. Nkrumah said the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the event would sign a memorandum of understanding with all the venue cities for the tournament on July 5 this year in Accra.

He said construction of a new sports stadium at Essipong in the Metropolis is over 80 per cent complete.

Mr. Nkrumah said the contractors working on the project gave the assurance that work on the project would be completed by the end of September this year.

He said the rehabilitation of Gyandu Park, Railways Park and Fijai Secondary School Park in the Metropolis for training was in progress. Mr. Nkrumah said the Waste Management Department of the assembly has placed refuse containers at all refuse dumps and with support from ABC and Rusaben private waste companies clearing the containers regularly. He said the assembly would continue to work with Zoomlion, a waste management group to rid the Metropolis of waste especially plastic materials.

Mr. Philip Kwesi Nkrumah, said the Environmental Health and Management Department would impound stray animals, provide more public urinals, control noise, prevent smoke pollution and install more street litterbins in the Metropolis.

He said the Department would also educate food vendors on hygienic practices and inspect hotels, restaurants and chop bars and arrest people who would indiscriminately litter the streets. Mr. Nkrumah said the assembly has decided to recruit more sanitation guards through the National Youth Employment Programme to assist the department.

He said the Assembly has so far received 2,966,322,000 cedis for the School Feeding Programme as at June this year, and 12,353 basic school children within the metropolis were currently being fed once a day through the programme.

Mr. Nkrumah said at the end of March this year, 19,973 malaria cases had been recorded in the Metropolis. He said at end of May this year, the National Health Insurance Scheme had registered 113,672 people in the metropolis and 102,502 cards had been issued.

Mr. Nkrumah said premium collected so far stood at 3,631,971,700 cedis as gainst 7,721,061,906 cedis of total claims paid to clients.