THE Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has warned, especially hawkers, selling on pavements, footbridges and other open public spaces, to vacate these places with immediate effect.
THE warning, which was issued by the AMA last Tuesday in a statement, is in respect of an upcoming decongestion exercise to be embarked upon by the city authorities. And as usual it is aimed at ridding the metropolis of the nuisance activities of hawkers.
THE AMA made it clear that the activities of people who hawk on pavements and on the streets of the capital city are contrary to the AMA hawkers by-laws of 2011 and section 117(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation, 2012 (LI 2180)and are punishable by law.
ACCORDING to the city authorities, the exercise will be carried out in phases. And the focus areas for the decongestion exercise, we understand, are the central business district (CBD), Kaneshie Market Area, N1 highway (the Mallam-Achimota), Darkuman among other areas in Accra.
THIS is not the first time that AMA will be embarking on such an exercise. We have had many in the past including demolishing of unauthorised structures which only achieved little success.
THE effectiveness of this kind of AMA-initiated exercises is that they only last for at least a month or even less. The reason for the above is the lack of sustaining it and making sure that hawkers do not go back to sell on the footbridges, pavements and on the streets. That people desist from building at unauthorised places.
NO one needs to tell hawkers that hawking in the streets is a dangerous activity which can cause collateral damage. They are also a contributory factor to the heaps of garbage on the pavements and along some of the principal streets of the Accra.
SADLY, many of these hawkers are recalcitrant and have made the footbridges, pavements, streets their territories where on a daily basis they do brisk business, forgetting about the dangers they are exposed to.
IT is in the light of the above that Today is calling on the AMA to make sure that the impending decongestion exercise does not become one of those exercises that we have had in the past which impact was very minimal.
THE issue is not just about driving these hawkers off the pavements, footbridges, but more importantly, ensuring that they do not return to these places.
OFTENTIMES a lot of energy is put in when it comes to sacking the hawkers from the pavements, but then very little or nothing is done when it comes to ensuring that they do not come back.
THIS is where Today urges the AMA to put adequate measures in place this time around to ensure that the hawkers do not go back to places they are barred by law from selling or else it will be as good as AMA not even embarking upon the exercise.
IT is, therefore, our hope that this decongestion exercise will mark a turning point in hawking in Accra.