The traditional authority at Kwamo in the Ashanti region has re-introduced Communal Labour as an effective way to ensure environmental cleanliness in the community.
Residents who refuse to take part in such activities will be fined or summoned to the chief’s palace to answer questions.
In this drive, the traditional authority and unit committees will lead regular clean up exercises and ensure strict adherence to environmental hygiene.
The Kwamo community is adopting a local technology for waste separation, which is intended to encourage residents and visitors to dispose of waste in a manner that facilitates easy recycling.
Kwamo is one of the major communities within the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti region, lying within Fumesua and Krapa, along the Kumasi-Konongo highway.
Kwamo is a peri-urban community, hosting many people of diverse cultural, ethnic, social and economic backgrounds.
Waste disposal and management and environmental hygiene continue to be a challenge for both the political and traditional leadership who have been searching for a sustainable strategy to arrest the canker.
Open defecation, for instance, continues on the premises of the local Catholic community and basic school.
It is to address the situation that the Chief and elders and other opinion leaders have re-introduced the age-old Communal Labour philosophy.
The traditional leadership has joined forces with the Unit Committees and Assembly Members to organize weekly or monthly self-help activities including sweeping, weeding, construction of schools, places of convenience, and electrification projects.
The Chief of Kwamo, Nana Owusu Nyanin, mentioned sanitation as one of his key priority areas in the pursuit of the socio-economic development of the town. He warned against non-cooperation.
