The Assembly today resumed the evacuation exercise to clear the backlog of dumping sites that have over the years posed serious health Hazards to residents in the affected communities within the metropolitan area.
At a media briefing session ahead of the operation at the premises of one of the beneficiary sites in the Bilpiela electoral area , the mayor of Tamale ,Hon Sule Salifu noted that the exercise is aimed at eliminating the stench associated with the accumulated refuse and its potential danger of increasing sanitation related disease burden in the metropolis. Mayor Sule announced, that in all ,about 30 of such otherwise abandoned sites are targeted for the intervention with Bilpiela as only a starting point .
Hon Sule Salifu shared his joy for the intervention and therefore used the occasion to commend the Local Government Ministry and the Zoomlion Company Ltd for this collaboration.
He however reiterated the call to adopt and in some cases scale up the recently piloted pay-as-you-dump policy initiative, a community-driven initiative aimed at providing a guarantee for the evacuation of the communal waste containers at regular intervals.
Hon Sule Salifu lamented the high cost involved in the evacuation against computing development needs of the people for which reason the current practice of mass evacuation might not be sustainable. He therefore admonished key opinion leaders including chiefs ,assembly members,religious leaders , youth groups ,etc to show interest in the management of sanitation in their communities.
