Accra Is Sitting On Time Bomb: Health Official

The Executive Director of the Ghana Health Service Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa has warned that Accra is sitting on a time bomb as a result of the indiscriminate littering around human excreta.

Such behaviour according to Prof Akosa makes cholera endemic in any city or town.

Reacting to media reports of a cholera outbreak in parts of Accra last Wednesday, Prof Akosa said health workers are always worried about sanitation situation in the country.

He said it is strange that landlords would build nice houses but refuse to provide toilet facilities and rent the rooms out to the public.

''People just build nice houses but fail to think of where they would ease themselves,'' he said. ''People have been asking government to provide more public toilets, but public toilets are not meant for household use'', Prof Akosa said.

He called for legislation, which would force all landlords to provide toilet facilities in their homes.

''People defecate and carry them around in plastic bags and throw them on the street all over. As a result, human excreta is seeping into all our water bodies.''

Prof. Akosa disclosed that his outfit is designing a campaign on environmental sanitation, which would be launched soon using the song titled Scent Noo, a chart topping hit.

''We want to let the public know that the scent of filth has engulfed us and we need to fight it by changing behaviour'' , he said.

At a meeting with the Press recently in Accra to launch one year of the Ghana Health Service., Prof Akosa said cholera continues to be endemic in the coastal regions of Ghana, citing Greater Accra and the Central Regions as the worst affected parts of the country,

He however said there was a considerable decrease in reported cases of cholera during the past year with over a 50% drop in case fatality.

Ghana is currently helping West African countries like Sierra Leone to revamp their surveillance systems.