Report by Ben LARYEA
The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has embarked on a tour to have firsthand information on post-flood and sanitation challenges at Ayawaso East and North municipalities in the Greater Accra Region.
The tour witnessed some delegation of the ministry to visit Ayawaso East and North to access the sanitation issues affecting residents in the respected municipal areas upon which the Minister, Madam Freda Akosua Prempeh challenged the Assemblies to live up to their commitment expressing the level of filth that have engulfed some parts of the communities and was quick to state that sanitation goes beyond refuse.
She said residents have taken advantage of dumping refuse in drains as a result of the absence of concrete and metal covers and saying the attitude of dumping human waste and other household waste does not auger well for human settlements since the move can bring all manner of diseases.
The Minister disclosed that filth generates all kinds of ill-health and thus charged the Assemblies to ensure that every household must have a place of convenient (toilet) to deter people from using polythene which ends up in drains and refuse dumps.
She said the Ministry is working fervently with the Education ministry to create more awareness on environmental cleanliness which forms part of the campaign dubbed to sensitise the public in keeping their surroundings clean.
“As part of the World Sanitation Day celebrated globally, the citizenry must engage in the collective drive to keep their surroundings tidied up through massive cleanup exercise”, she advised.
The visit took the delegation to Fadama an Accra suburb were recycling of household and industrial waste are segregated and the Minister used the occasion to advice household, offices among others to segregate waste for easy collection, saying the advanced countries segregates waste with the primary goal of using them for commercial and industrial purposes.
She therefore challenged the Assemblies to provide refuse bins and labelled them at every picking and transfer points and pointed out that the gesture forms part of the segregation campaign for easy transfer of solid waste.
