Landlords in Accra ordered to provide toilets by September

Accra, March 23, GNA - The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has asked landlords in the Metropolis to construct appropriate toilet facilities in their houses, warning that the Assembly would from September start arresting those who would flout the order. "With effect from September 2011, any landlord who refuses to provide toilet facilities for his or tenants would be arrested and prosecuted," said Dr Simpson Boateng, Metro Director of Public Health. Dr Simpson, who was addressing the press on Wednesday on measures adopted by the Assembly to curb the cholera outbreak, noted that about 90 per cent of households in the Metropolis lacked toilet facilities thereby making people to defecate at unapproved places and increasing the rate of the cholera outbreak in the city.

He said since the cholera outbreak was noticed in the country in September 2010, about 3,000 cases and more than 30 deaths had been recorded in Accra alone.

The Ghana Health Service says the death toll in the cholera outbreak throughout the country is about 64.

Dr Simpson mentioned poor sanitation and the consumption of contaminated foods and water as being the main causes of the epidemic that had hit the city with Abbosey Okai leading in Accra. Dr Simpson said the AMA had set up a task force in all its 11 sub- metros to arrest people who cooked and sold food to the public under unhygienic conditions.

"These people who are arrested are brought to the Sanitation Courts that we have established. So far we have prosecuted about 1,000 offenders," he explained.

The Courts are operational in Ablekuma Central, La and Abeka while a fourth one is to be opened at Osu.

Mr Twumasi Ankrah, AMA Solicitor, appealed to people living in the Metropolis to co-operate with the Assembly in the implementation of its new bye-laws.

The bye-laws, which are mainly on curbing commercial activities on the streets of Accra, would be enforced in April 2011. Anyone who would flout the laws would either pay a fine of GH¢120 or be imprisoned for three months or both.