The National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), in collaboration with the 216 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), is to roll out a campaign to address streetism in the country.
Dubbed “Streets Without Street Children “, the exercise ,which the association said would be launched soon, will remove thousands of children who are living and working on the streets, particularly in the cities and other big towns.
According to NALAG the project will be its single biggest initiative to address a canker that continues to destroy the future of many Ghanaian children.
This was made known by the General Secretary of NALAG, Kokro Amankwah, during an interaction with presiding members and MMDAs in the Ashanti Region as part of their nationwide tour to the ten regions of the country.
Mr. Kokro Amankwah said the fine details of the exercise were being finalized for the official launch.
He said in spite of the numerous social interventions by the government to harness the potential of children to become responsible citizens in future, many children were still being denied their right to education.
He pointed out that, NALAG was envisaging support from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection as it worked to achieve the objectives of the exercise.
While emphasizing that children were the future leaders of the country, he indicated that it was incumbent on national leaders and others to protect the rights of children.
“I, therefore, call on all Ghanaians to commit to doing more to ensure the protection of the rights of the children of Ghana”, he stated.
Mr. Amankwah also appealed to the various assemblies to redirect their focus on the management of sanitation to ensure that the sector becomes an avenue for revenue generation.
He was emphatic that the assemblies could not continue to spend huge sums of money to manage sanitation when there were opportunities to turn waste into money.
According to him, it was important for assemblies to explore opportunities for the recycling of solid waste materials.
Kumasi and Accra alone generate over 5,000 metric tones of solid waste a day, and management of the waste had always been a headache to the assemblies.
In total , just about five percent of the solid waste generated in the two major cities was recycled.
He stressed the need for the private sector to be engaged in efforts to recycle waste.
The deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Elizabeth Agyemang, urged NALAG to solicit for the support of all presiding members and MMDCEs in passing resolutions to actualize the vision of government.
She believed this will go a long way to position the MMDAs to effectively implement the laudable programmes and policies of government.
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