Street Litter Bins programme commendable, but…

One of the waste bins positioned on the Castle Road.

ONE of the reasons why the eradication of street littering has been a challenge for the State is the absence of waste bins on the streets to encourage proper disposal of waste on the part of motorists and pedestrians.

It is difficult to convince pedestrians to keep, for instance, pieces of waste generated in their bags or hold onto them till they find a “proper” place to dispose of it, which they might never find until they reach home.

It takes the “highly disciplined” Ghanaian to virtually convert their bags and sometimes pockets into trash cans for hours as they go about their activities away from their homes or offices.

It is for this reason that I find the positioning of waste bins on almost all the major streets in the capital by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR) a commendable initiative.

I have observed for the past one month that many streets in Accra, including the Kojo Thompson Road, Independence Avenue, Ring Road, Dr Busia Highway, La-Teshie-Nungua Beach Road, Accra-Achimota Highway and the Liberation Road, all have waste bins strategically positioned at varied intervals.

The initiative follows the launch of the “Street Litter Bins” programme by the MSWR in May this year as part of the government’s agenda to curb street littering to contribute to making Accra and the country at large clean.

Under the programme, about 20,000 dustbins were to be distributed to the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the country.

I have observed that all the waste bins on the streets are locked in a metallic structure, which indicates that the MSWR has drawn lessons from the numerous cases of stolen waste bins that bedevilled similar initiatives in the past.

In a country where some citizens have lost touch with patriotism, the decision to safeguard the bins from theft is equally commendable.

Sustainability is key

I have no shred of doubt that the Street Litter Bins programme will contribute to making our cities clean. My major concern is how best we can sustain the initiative to achieve its objectives.

Considering how similar initiatives by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and some non-governmental organisations were handled in the past, I have every reason to worry about sustainability.

Previous programmes had been characterised by irregular emptying of the bins, leading to the pouring of waste onto the streets; non-replacement of broken bins; poor supervision, among other forms of mismanagement.

Sustaining the programme is not about injecting money into it in future, but the adoption of a practicable maintenance plan that will encourage the durability of the bins.

The onus, therefore, is on the various MMDAs to ensure that all the bins within their jurisdictions are properly supervised and maintained.

If we should rely on the government to replace bins that may get broken in future, the programme will be a dead duck.

Proposal
I propose that the assemblies write to the various corporate organisations within their jurisdictions and appeal to them to adopt the bins on the streets on which they operate and contribute a quota to empty and replace them when they go bad.

The assemblies should also enforce its by-laws and ensure that persons caught in sanitation offences are heavily fined and the monies used to purchase additional bins to cover more areas.

The MSWR should periodically conduct performance assessments of the programme and be quick to sanction assemblies that do not comply with its maintenance plan.

Pedestrians and motorists must recognise the significance of the bins and honourably drop their pieces of waste into them. Waste management is indeed a collective responsibility.

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