Ashaiman Municipal Assembly embraces ‘Planting for Food, Jobs’

BENJAMIN GLOVER 

15 JULY 2017

The Ashaiman Municipal Assembly has embraced the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme as part of the government’s efforts to encourage farming across the country.

The Ashaiman Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Albert Boakye Okyere, who disclosed this in his maiden sessional address last Monday, said a number of farmers in the municipality had been enrolled onto the programme and supplied with inputs such as seeds and fertilisers at subsidised prices as part of the efforts to promote agriculture and make it attractive for the youth to venture into it.

He promised to ensure that the Assembly, in the coming year, would expand the programme and also go into aquaculture to create employment for the youth and promote fish farming as well.

Dam rehabilitation

 He hinted that plans were underway to rehabilitate the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) facility in the municipality to enhance the ’Planting for Food and Jobs’ concept, as well as promote the programme in the municipality.

Through the government’s policy of Planting for Food and Jobs, farmers have been given the opportunity to engage in the production of rice, maize and onion, he said.

According to Mr Okyere, if we were to encourage urban agriculture and aquaculture, then we needed to protect the irrigation lands which were faced with a number of challenges, including encroachment, pollution, broken canals, as well as the dumping of refuse and undesirable materials in the canals and on the farmlands. He promised to address those challenges to enable the farmers to practise commercial farming and create employment in the area.

Environmental sanitation

Touching on the issue of sanitation in the municipality, Mr Okyere said in addition to the interventions made, the assembly was receiving assistance from the central government and its development partners to address environmental sanitation, since it was still a big challenge in the area.

http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/ashaiman-municipal-assembly-embraces-planting-for-food-jobs.html

GNFS carries out fire audit in buildings in Tema

BENJAMIN GLOVER     18 JULY 2017

ACFO Frances Roskson (middle) and personnel of the GNFS examining a large size LPG installation outside the kitchen of Tema Senior High School

The Tema office of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has conducted fire audit in some institutions and high rise buildings in the metropolis to ascertain its preparedness in the event of a fire outbreak.

This forms part of the efforts by the GNFS to contain fire outbreaks in the metropolis.

The auditing was led by the Tema Regional Fire Service Commander, Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) Ms Frances Rockson, her Deputy, Divisional Officer 1, Mr Timothy Affum, and other senior fire personnel in the region.

The team paid an unannounced visit to the Tema Senior High School where its members inspected fire safety measures in place in the school, especially the administration block, kitchen and dining hall.

The team also inspected the newly built eight floors of the TDC Towers at Tema Community Two where the members conducted a fire risk assessment of the structure to enable the GNFS plan for the future in the event of a fire outbreak.

The audit team ended its tour at the Tema Central Mall and Hotel where the members briefed the occupants of the buildings on what they should do to save their lives in case of a fire outbreak

Explanation

In an interview after the inspection, Ms Rockson said the exercise had become necessary because the GNFS had realised that some of the occupants of public and private buildings lacked knowledge in basic fire safety.

Ms Rockson said fire safety and prevention was a shared responsibility that began from the home with parents and employees at workplaces.

At the Tema Senior High School, she advised the management to install fire detectors on the administration block to help detect fire.

She also urged them to create another entrance at the school as a precautionary measure.

During a tour of the school’s kitchen, the team detected that gas cylinders had been placed in doorways, while some doors in the dining halls had been locked.

The regional CFO advised management to relocate the gas cylinders outside the kitchen and also open up the seal doors in the dining hall as a precautionary measure.

At the Tema TDC Towers, the team commended the facility managers for putting in place the needed safety and prevention mechanism to help combat fire.

via: http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/gnfs-carries-out-fire-audit-in-buildings-in-tema.html

Tema General Hospital gets Gh¢100, 000 incinerator

BENJAMIN GLOVER  

10 JULY 2017

The GH¢100, 000 incinerator donated to the TGH by Rotary Club of Tema

The Rotary Club of Tema has installed a modern incinerator for the Tema General Hospital to help the health facility manage its surgical and medical waste.

The GH¢100,000 equipment runs on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It is made up of the burning chambers, a primary chamber which loads and starts the burning process and a secondary chamber for further burning to remove all hazardous materials into smoke, which comes out of the incinerator through a 40 feet chimney.

The previous incinerator used for the disposal of medical and surgical waste at the hospital broke down five years ago.

As a result, the hospital relied on an external contractor to handle and manage its surgical waste,  a situation which meant, surgical and general waste could be left on the hospital’s premises for days.

Background

The breakdown of the previous incinerator came to the notice of the President of the Rotary Club of Tema, Mr Mark Deiden, following a visit by members to the facility in the 2014/ 2015 Rotary year.

He said with support from its international partner, the Rotary Club of Odder in Denmark and some individuals and corporate organisations in Tema, the club raised funds to procure the incinerator.

He named the others as B. DEKS Educational Institute, Port Medical Centre, Narh-Bita Hospital and Everpure Ghana Limited, as well as individuals such as Nana Ato Dadzie, former Chief of Staff, Mr Djabanor Narh of Ernst and Young and Mr Philip Owiredu of Cal Bank.

Mr Deiden stressed the need for a proper maintenance system to be put in place to ensure a longer lifespan for the incinerator.

He said the hospital could also use the incinerator to generate some revenue by allowing other health facilities to use it for a fee.

Regular maintenance

The District Governor of the Rotary Club in Ghana, Mr Sam Worentetu, underscored the need for regular maintenance of the system to make it serve its purpose.

“This our unenviable distinction as a people with very low or totally deficient culture of maintenance is even more stark when the powers that be do not feel any close affinity to the object requiring maintenance. Thus a new minister sees an immediate need for a brand new 4x4 vehicle for his personal use but may not notice that the hospital ambulance just requires an oil change for it to give more service to the community, until the engine collapses,” he said.

Highlighting the importance of an incinerator, Mr Worentetu said in today’s world, hospital waste was becoming increasingly complex due to changing technologies and increase in the services that the hospitals perform for the community.

Expansion

The Medical Director of the Tema General Hospital, Dr Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, thanked the Rotary Club of Tema for the initiative and called on other institutions in Tema not to abandon the health facility since it was the only referral hospital in Tema.

Dr Opoku-Adusei reiterated his appeal to the government to consider rebuilding and expanding the facility, stressing that the hospital was the only referral point serving about 50 communities and 900,000 people in and around Tema.

The Deputy Minister of Transport and MP for Tema East, Mr Daniel Titus-Glover, said due to the increasing pressure on the facility, the hospital was unable to cope with the health care needs of the people. He promised to liaise with his colleague MPs in the hospital’s catchment area to lobby the government on the need to upgrade the Tema General Hospital to a regional hospital.

The Greater Accra Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Linda Van Otoo, also thanked all those who made the provision of the incinerator possible, stressing that it would go a long way to reduce the hazards faced by health workers and the general public.

via: http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/tema-hospital-gets-gh-100-000-incinerator.html

Senior citizens feted, honoured in regions

 03 JULY 2017

Tema

Music Legend, A.B. Crentsil (with mic) treating the senior citizens to highlife tunes. Picture: Benjamin Xornam Glover

In Tema, more than 200 senior citizens in the metropolis were feted by the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, reports Benjamin Xornam Glover.

The senior citizens were treated to a sumptuous lunch and quality highlife tunes by A.B. Crentsil, one of Ghana’s most prolific highlife artistes, backed by the Matts Band.

he MCE of Tema, Mr Felix Nii Annang Mensah-La, presenting a parcel to a retiree,  Nana Ogyedom Tsetsewa I, who is also a Divisional Chief of the Gomoa Akyempim Traditional Council. Picture: Benjamin Xornam Glover

The Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Felix Nii Annang Mensah-La, said the event was also part of efforts by the assembly to compensate senior citizens in the metropolis for their hard work which had led the city’s growth.

“We recognise the efforts and contributions you have made to the development of Tema and Ghana in general and we are very grateful to you. We do not have opportunity often to bring you all together to say thank you. As a nation, we are proud of your contributions,” he said.

via: | http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/senior-citizens-feted-honoured-in-regions.html

TDC ejects over 300 Kaiser Flats tenants

BENJAMIN XORNAM GLOVER  

02 JULY 2017

Occupants of Kaiser Flats in Tema Community Four have had their properties thrown out following an eviction exercise yesterday morning.

More than 300 people have been rendered homeless following an eviction exercise carried out by the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) at Kaiser Flats in Tema Community Four.

Some macho men, under the protection of armed policemen as early as 5a.m. yesterday, forced their way into the rooms of the tenants and threw out the belongings of its occupants.

The affected residents, who included women and children, told the Daily Graphic that they had not been notified before the eviction exercise.
Information gathered by the Daily Graphic indicated that the TDC in 2013 secured an order from the Tema High Court to possess four block apartments within the Kaiser Flats at Tema Community Four.

Court order

Following the court order, the TDC served eviction orders and notified occupants of the impending demolition of the flats which had been declared uninhabitable due to serious structural defects.

The decision to demolish the building has resulted in a long-standing battle between the TDC and the occupants who have declared their resolve to resist any such move.
When the Daily Graphic visited the area yesterday, a number of rooms had been broken into, and properties belonging to the tenants thrown out.
Some of the tenants were seen going through their properties to see what could be salvaged.

Residents’ defiance

The Assembly member for the Horticulture Electoral Area, Mr Richard Anning, who acted as a spokesperson for the affected tenants, challenged the rights of the macho men and the police to carry out the eviction.

“We challenged them to produce whatever court order that they were acting on but they couldn’t show us the said court order so quickly I called the Metropolitan Chief Executive to inform him.

“He tried to talk to the leader of the group supervising the action but he refused to talk to him. The MP also tried but he refused to speak. They ended up ejecting the people.

“My worry is that they (the gang) came as early as 5 a.m. when most of the people were still in bed, while others were preparing their children for school.

“You could see the trauma that the children were going through this morning. If they had told us ahead of time, we would have assembled the people and prepared their minds, but we were not informed.”

Unfairness

In an interview, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Felix Nii Annang Mensah-La, said the situation had not been fairly handled.

“I was told that at a Metropolitan Security meeting somewhere last year when the issue came up for discussion, there was clear information that before this eviction 
exercise is carried out, the TMA should be informed.

As a I speak to you, TMA has not been informed. So for me, I have decided not to comment on it since it’s a court order and one has to be careful when commenting.
That notwithstanding, those living here are Ghanaians. At least, one week sensitisation to move out of this place would have been enough,” he said.
The MCE said a meeting would be called for all stakeholders in the matter to sit and discuss the issue further.

Writer's email: benjamin.glover@graphic.com.gh

via: | http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/tdc-ejects-over-300-kaiser-flats-tenants.html