Thousands of members of The Church of Pentecost, Achimota Area, have embarked on a massive clean-up exercise as a move to rid –off filth and indiscrimate waste disposal in Achimota and its environs.
The exercise form part of the church’s social responsibility to educate its members and the Ghanaian populace on the dangers of environmental pollution and also challenge them to become agents of environmental cleanliness.
As early as 6:00 am, members from the 21 various districts of the church within the Achimota enclave converged at their district offices of the church ready to partake in the exercise.
Wearing green and white T-shirts with the campaign slogan “Environmental Care, My Responsibility” boldly embossed at the back of the T-shirts and, the church members swept and collected loads of garbage at Achimota, Dome, Taifa, Doblo Gonno, Sarpeiman, Tantra Hill, Ofankor, Pokuase, Medie, Kotoku, Kutunse, Amasaman and Mayera. The rest include Tesano, Alogboshie, New Achimota, Kwabenya, North Taifa, Asofan, and Amanfrom. Some also desilted the choked gutters around the markets while others swept the corners of the streets.
Additionally, there were some others who held placards. Some of them which had the inscriptions: “Litter into a bin,” “Open defecation,” “indecent exposure: Keep it fully private,” “The only place rubbish must go is into the bin,” among others. The objective was to educate the general public on the need to keep their environs – particularly public spaces clean.
Aside providing personnel to assist, the leadership of Zoomlion Company, a waste management company, brought skip trucks and other equipment to help in the collection of the refuse. Other stakeholders, who joined the five hour clean-up exercise include the chiefs, opinion leaders, assemblymen and women, unit committee members, market queens, GPRTU Station Managers, Moslems and other stakeholders.
Prior to the clean-up exercise, all the districts within the Achimota Area of the church held community stakeholders meeting, educational campaigns and community durbar to educate members in their respective catchment areas about the need to care for the environment.
The Area Head of The Church of Pentecost, Achimota Area, Apostle David Tettey Tekper, who was present to assist in the exercise, commended the members for the good initiative, and noted that, the greatest challenge in Ghana today has been waste management.
Apostle Tekper said communities are being choked with garbage which often results in environmental havoc to the inhabitants of the place, adding that, if only people would be cautious enough to avoid dirt, the nation would be neat and free from diseases. He advised that, it would be of great service if every Ghanaian would focus on cleanliness, and encourage others to emulate the communal act of The Church of Pentecost.
The Achimota Area Coordinator of The Environmental Care Campaign, Pastor Felix Dela Klutse revealed that the exercise is expected to be done monthly at different locations within the Area. He said filth brings sicknesses and all sorts of things that do not augur well for society, stressing that, it was high time open defecations and indiscrimate waste disposal in the area stopped.
