Assemblies urged to monitor sanitation in the communities

Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources has urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to intensify their efforts at monitoring sanitary conditions within their communities.

She also advised the Assemblies to develop activities on daily basis with the stakeholders so that they could meet to assess their progress while sharing knowledge on challenges faced by the communities.

She advocated for the issuance of notices to all business owners to ensure that they pay their Business Operating Permit and other levies to generate revenue to enhance development.

Mrs Dapaah gave the advice when she engaged Municipal and District Chief Executives, Environmental Health Officers and sanitation service providers at a meeting to discuss sanitation challenges in Accra.

She said government takes good environmental sanitation very serious and therefore urged the heads of the Assemblies not to sit in their offices but rather move to the field to work.

She called on the assemblies to provide practical and easy workable methods of implementing bold and new initiatives to attract non-governmental organisations’ funding to enhance sanitation in the communities.

She asked the assemblies to enforce the sanitation laws to prevent open defecation and assured of the Ministry’s continued support for efficient and enhanced service delivery to the communities.

Mr George Asiedu, the Coordinator of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP) said the project would come to an end by year 2020 and encouraged the Assemblies to register more people for the construction of sustainable household toilets.

Nana Ama Adobea, the President of the Environmental Service Providers Association, observed that the inability of some waste companies to live up to expectation in the communities was because of the long distances of dumping sites and the failure by customers to pay providers for services rendered.

She also cited inadequate personnel and logistics as a major constraint for effective law enforcement and monitoring.