Public health officers of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) have arrested one Nuru Musah, a driver of a cesspit truck with registration number GX 3726 – 18 belonging to A & D Waste Company, for allegedly dislodging untreated effluents into the Odaw river.
The driver was apprehended during the early hours of Monday, 1 November 2021 after he was captured by some citizens on amateur video footage.
Confirming the arrest, Mr. Gilbert Ankrah, the Head of Public Affairs at the AMA, said officers from the Metropolitan Public Health Department (MPHD) led by Joseph Asitanga and Ishmael Tagoe, in the early hours of Monday, managed to apprehend the owner of the company who assisted in arresting the driver.
He disclosed that the driver was currently in police custody pending court.
He noted that it was an offense under the AMA Sanitation by-laws to "indiscriminately dump solid and liquid waste in open spaces, drains, gutters, behind walls, or burn solid waste in one's compound,” adding that a person who contravenes this by-law "commits an offense term of imprisonment of not less than thirty days and not more than six months or to both; and in case of a continuing offense, is liable to a fine of not more than one penalty unit for each day that the offense continues."
Mr. Ankrah pointed out that the city of Accra currently had excess capacity to treat liquid waste, adding that wastewater generated in the city was treated by the Mudor Treatment Plant and other waste treatment facilities in the city.
He said the environmental effects of discharging sewage indiscriminately into the drains were enormous and cautioned would-be offenders to desist from the practice to avoid the wrath of the Assembly.
Source: Classfmonline.com
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