Zoomlion intensifies cleaning of drains in Gumani...As rains set in

AS part of efforts to prevent the reoccurrence of floods in Gumani, a suburb of Tamale, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a sanitation company, has intensified efforts to empty choked drains in the area.

Zoomlion and Nasara Youth emptying choked gutters

In the last two years, a number of areas in the Tamale metropolis had consistently been inundated each time there was a heavy downpour, leading to the destruction of property, as well as the loss of lives.

Gumani happens to be one of the areas that mostly got flooded and the cause of this annual disaster has been attributed to the clogging of drains in the area by all manner of debris including plastic waste, sand, tins, cans, and organic waste.

However, this year, Zoomlion is hoping to minimise the extent of flooding in Gumani and many other parts of Tamale by intensifying clean up campaigns.

Over the weekend, personnel of Zoomlion, together with the Nasara Youth Association, organised a clean up to empty choked gutters along the various streets of Gumani.

With their gloves, pick axes, shovels and wheel barrows, the hardworking young men got themselves busy throughout Saturday morning removing garbage and sand from the gutters from street to street.

In addition, personnel of the vector control unit of Zoomlion undertook a spraying exercise to fumigate the gutters and kill mosquito larvae in the area.

Vector Control officers busy at work

The assembly man for Nyanshegu-Gumani, Mr Mohammed Awal Zakaria, who joined in the clean up, said he was worried about the extent to which some people in the area disposed off garbage into open gutters.

“Because of this practice, many of our gutters are full of garbage and so when it rains the water does not run freely,” he lamented.

Mr Zakaria said Gumani was particularly noted for floods due to problems with the drainage system and therefore expressed hope that a permanent solution would be found to this problem.

The Northern Regional Vector Control Officer of Zoomlion, Mr Abdulai Aziz Yelsuma told the Daily Graphic that the mosquito spraying exercise formed part of the National Mosquito Control Programme (NAMCOP), which is being implemented by Zoomlion and the Ministry of Health.

The programme, he explained, was primarily aimed at reducing significantly the mosquito population in the country by releasing chemicals that destroy mosquito larvae into areas considered to be the breeding places for mosquitoes, such as open gutters, ponds, dumpsites and public toilets.

This, he noted, was considered as one of the key methods to curb the spread of malaria, since the disease is spread by particular specie of mosquitoes.

“In the first quarter of this year, we have sprayed 25 communities in Tamale and we hope to increase the number,” Mr Yelsuma stated.

(Published in the Daily Graphic of April 30, 2013, page 17)