Parliament to discuss the filth situation in Accra

Members of Parliament would on Thursday engage the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources to explain what steps are being taken to clean Accra of filth.

Mr Andrew Dari Chiwitey, MP for Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, would set the tone for the discussion by asking the Minister, “What urgent steps are being taken to clear Accra of filth.”

Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader announced the proposal, which was unanimously agreed on in the Business Statement for the week ending March 6, 2020, on the floor of Parliament, at Osu in Accra.

The discussion is expected to generate a lot of interest as the issue of sanitation has become a matter of public and national interest, with the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in the delivery of the 2020 State of the Nation (SONA) indicating there was an improvement in the nation’s sanitation.

The President said: “Mr Speaker, we are seeing an improvement in the quality of our nation’s sanitation, even though we still have a lot more to do.”

According to the President the Northern Regional Environmental Health Unit, in the three regions up north, (Savannah, North East and Northern), “the number of Open Defecation-Free Communities (ODF) has increased from five per cent (5%) as of June 2016 to some fifty-eight (58%) as of July 2019”.

Also, “the latest data from the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources shows that ODF communities in Ghana, as a whole, have increased from four hundred and ten (410) in 2016 to over five thousand (5,000) communities.”

“Now, that is progress, and it did not just happen, it took hard work, commitment and the provision of infrastructure”, the President noted.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced that in fulfilment of the governing party’s manifesto commitment of “toilets for all”, the Government has “built 13,800 toilets, adding that the Government would build more.

During an interaction with the people of James Town in Accra, in 2017, President Akufo-Addo enjoined the people to help make Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

“The commitment we are making and which I want you all to make with me is that by the time we end our four-year term, Accra is going to be the cleanest city in Africa,” President Akufo-Addo said.



In April 2019, when journalists queried Sanitation Minister Cecilia Dapaah what progress the Government had made with the vison to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa by 2020, she said:

“The President will go for two terms and at the end of that term, Accra would have been the cleanest city and we are on course. God is in control and the battle is still the Lords.”