A Kumasi Magistrate Court on Tuesday (29 October) fined Messiah Cosmetics GH¢1,200 for improper waste disposal in the Adum area following public outrage sparked by a viral video.
The video, filmed on 18 October 2024, showed a female employee of the shop dumping waste into a drain during rainfall.
Jerry White Junior, the manager of Messiah Cosmetics, pleaded guilty to public nuisance charges under Section 56 of the Public Health Act 2012 (Act 851) and was sentenced to either pay the fine or face three months’ imprisonment with hard labour.
The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA)’s Chief Environmental Officer, Enoch Nkansah, praised the ruling, emphasizing that it reinforces the KMA’s commitment to maintaining sanitation standards and curbing public health hazards in the city.
“The public should be aware that the KMA does not accept this. These practices cause flooding, and mosquito breeding among others. And we want to assure the public that the KMA will go after such people and companies who cause such nuisance”, Nkansah said.
The KMA spends close to seventy per cent of its revenue on sanitation management, thereby taking a huge toll on its revenue, according to Chief Executive Samuel Pyne.
In 2023, the Assembly launched an initiative to restore Kumasi to its original glory, “The Garden City.”
The initiative is under the European Union Funded Holistic Reinforcement for Sustainable Development (HORESD) project, dubbed “Keep Kumasi Clean; Let’s Recycle” in partnership with Cape Verde and Manra of Spain, the city of Valencia.
“We have eight brand new trucks for this project, a thousand-unit containers. We have the facilitation of aggregators to purchase recyclable materials from waste pickers. We will have four compost sites within the city and two mini recycling plants to take charge of the waste produced”, said Kumasi Mayor Samuel Pyne at the launch of the project.
He believes this initiative will create jobs for the people and rake in revenue for the Assembly.
“And this is going to create jobs for the people and also give resources to KMA to enable us to pursue our developmental Agenda.”
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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