“We all have parts to play to make the region clean, green and beautiful,” he observed, adding that this was critical to improving the wellbeing and quality of life of the people.

“Until the MMDAs resolve to prioritise environmental sanitation issues, the nation will find it difficult to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as all the targets are environmentally-related.”

Mr Osei-Mensah was speaking at the launch of the ‘Sustainable Cleaning, Greening and Beautification of Ashanti Project’ at a ceremony hosted by the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) in Kumasi.

The Project, a collaborative work between the RCC and Zoomlion Ghana Limited, aims to whip up the enthusiasm for environmental sanitation issues among the citizenry.

It comes with a wide scope of operation, including the distribution of refuse bins to households, evacuation of heaped garbage, extensive education on sanitation bye-laws by the MMDAs and tree-planting.

The Project would also regularly see to the collection of sand deposited on the road, wire meshing and beautification of road medians, as well as provision of concrete refuse bins at strategic points.

It is being implemented in the Greater Kumasi jurisdiction and some selected districts in the Region.

The underlying objective is to address the perennial challenges associated with the ecosystem with a committee put in place to ensure the successful implementation of the Project.

Mr Osei-Mensah indicated that the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) was made the lead agent for the Project.

“We want to ensure an unprecedented implementation of all the components and policies related to the ecosystem,” he emphasized, stressing that the activities of the beneficiary assemblies would be overseen by the Technical Committee at the regional level.

Ms Gloria Anti, Human Resource Manager, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, said the waste management company was happy to be associated with the Project.

This was because it was linked to the company’s mission of promoting a clean and healthy environment.

She was optimistic that the project would help the citizenry to be responsive to environmental sanitation issues.