Some of the communities where the dumps were located are Asitey, Salosi in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, Sra and Ogome Matsewe in the Yilo Krobo Municipality, Aperade and Akrade in the Asuogyaman District, Nsutem zango and Kibi Juaso in the Fanteakwa South District and New Tafo zango in the Abuakwa North Municipality.

Other municipal and district assemblies which benefitted from the exercise were New Juaben South, New Juaben North, Suhum, Fanteakwa North, Achiase and Abuakwa South.

Health hazards

Speaking to the Daily Graphic after the exercise, the Eastern Regional Coordinator of Zoomlion Ghana, Faustina Shardey, said the company decided to embark on the exercise in view of the health hazards such heaps of refuse posed to the people.

She said most often the wind blew some of the refuse and scattered them around, making the whole environment filthy.

Ms Shardey said there were a lot of refuse dumps that had not been cleared for years, as such Zoomlion Ghana had to partner the Ministry of Local Government Decentralisation and Rural Development to have them removed, in fulfilment of the President’s vision of making the communities in the MMDAs very clean.

She said Zoomlion Ghana would also deposit containers at vantage points within the communities to enable the inhabitants dump their refuse in them.

She urged that since the containers were above the reach of children, they should not be sent to dump the refuse because such children would deposit them on the ground, thereby littering the environment.

Community ownership

Ms Shardey stated that in such a situation, the community members would be the owners of the dustbins and would therefore ensure that the appropriate refuse dumping procedure was adhered to.

The Zoomlion Regional Coordinator said the exercise was also to inculcate the spirit of cleanliness in the inhabitants.

That, she stated, would get rid of diseases such as malaria, cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery among others.

A trader in Koforidua in the New Juaben South Municipality, Cynthia Agyapong, said the removal of the refuse within her community would enable them not to inhale the pungent smell emanating from that heap of refuse.

She said they would no longer contract filth-borne diseases.