Health Officer banished from community

Wa (Upper West), 15th June 99 -

Mr Adam Salia Mohammed, Environmental Health Officer for Bulenga, a farming community in the Wa District, has been expelled from the village for being the source of "uncomplimentary news report" about their negative attitude to environmental hygiene.

Looking dejected and withdrawn, Mr Mohammed told newsmen at Wa on Monday that the elders and people met on Sunday and gave him 48 hours to leave the village because his safety could no longer be guaranteed.

On June 10, 1999, a "Ghanaian Times" story from the GNA attributed to the Environmental Health Officer, said the Bulenga community had abandoned a KVIP toilet put up by their district assembly for their use claiming it was an affront to their dignity and traditional beliefs to use it.

The story said they reasoned that their human waste could not be "sleeping in a well constructed house", toilet, while they themselves sleep in thatched houses.

Mr Mohammed said the people have also refused to drink water from a bore hole sunk for them, claiming that it was salty, compared to the stream water they were used to.

Confirming the banishment of the officer from the village, the assemblyman for the area, Mr Seidu Mohammed Saani, said the elders took the decision because they could not continue to live "with someone who has insulted us as backward".

He described the story as a pack of lies coming from "an officer, who is not respected by the community because he lacks any sense of decorum".

Mr Saani said the 12-seater KVIP was being patronised and he has employed a labourer to keep it clean and he pays him weekly from his own resources.

"We even need another toilet because this one cannot serve the whole community", he said.

The assemblyman said the people have contributed money through levies and paid it to the Community Water Project (COWAP) for the replacement of a faulty bore hole. This will add to three functional hand dug-wells fitted with pumps and another bore hole.

"Why should we contribute money to pay for the replacement of bore holes, if we have no use for potable water?" he queried.

GRi?/