The Minister of Roads and Highways and the MP of Bantama constituency, Hon. Francis Asenso-Boakye has commended the leadership of BuzStopBoys for their initiative of ensuring that drains and gutters in cities and towns across the country are rid of from filth.
The BuzStopBoys, is a group of young men, which is undertaking voluntary desilting of chocked drains and gutters in cities and towns in order to avoid flooding during the rains.
The Minister, who extended his personal support and that of the Ministry to the group, gave the group a personal donation of GHC10,000.00 as part of efforts to motivate them to do more for the country.
Hon. Asenso-Boakye made the commendation, when Mr Ohene Kwadwo Sarfo, the Leader and Founder of the BuzStopBoys and other members of the group paid a courtesy call on him at his Office in Accra, on his invitation.
“These young men are what we call the BuzStopBoys, they are doing pretty well. Having being the Minister of Works and Housing, and currently the Minister for Roads, I realized that these little contributions that they are doing has direct bearing on the work that we are doing in terms of provisions of infrastructure for our people,” Mr Asenso-Boakye stated.
“One of the primary reasons we encounter flooding in our country is because our drains are almost always silted and therefore they lose the capacity to absorb water and therefore, when the drains cannot absorb the water or contain the water, it goes out as runoff water and floods our cities and towns.”
He said flooding was a big problem in the country and that it destroys properties and sometimes people lose their lives.
He noted that in his Constituency (Bantama) for instance, last year, six people died during flooding.
“When I saw the work that they were doing, I thought it is a very good work that they are doing and they needed to be encouraged,” he stated.
“So, I invited them to my office, I wanted to see how my Ministry can collaborate with them and I want to also personally encourage them and make a personal donation to support them in what they are doing, so that it will encourage them to do more for our country.”
The Minister reiterated that development was a shared responsibility, adding that Government plays its part and the individuals also must play their part.
He underscored that Ghanaians need to change their mind set towards development; saying “because even if you bring angels to come and rule the country and we never change our mindset, we will never get anywhere”.
“And everybody continue to be blame Government, we live in a third world, where everybody thinks that Government should do everything; of course Government has a role to play but we also as citizens also have a role to play. So, that together we shape the development as shared responsibility.”
He said, he was happy that young men of BuzStopBoys were able to visit him and that together they were going to collaborate to make sure that they clean the nation’s gutters and drains to free them of siltation and other solid wastes.
He said keeping the gutters and drains clean would go a long way to maintain their capacity to contain water during rainfall, thereby avoiding flooding in cities and towns.
Mr Ohene Kwadwo Sarfo, the Leader and Founder of the Bus Stop Boys, on behalf of the group expressed their gratitude to the Minister for the kind gesture.
He appealed to Ghanaians to change their attitude and desist from dumping solid wastes into drains and gutters in order to prevent flooding in the country.
He said the group’s aim was to ensure that drains, gutters and greenbelts in cities and towns were kept clean to avoiding flooding during rainfalls.
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