Update existing legislation to environmental problems - Songsore

Accra, Jan. 9, GNA - Current legislation on maintaining environmental integrity should be updated and strictly enforced Professor Jacob Songsore, Dean of School of Research and Graduate Studies of the University of Ghana, said on Monday.

He said environmental problems relating to the home and neighbourhood of human settlements were accountable for a disproportionate share of morbidity and to some extent mortality burden in the country.

In view of this, there was also the urgent need to build the capacities of the District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies to better address these concerns and for expanded public investment in the supply of services, he said.

Professor Songsore said this when he presented a paper on: "Environmental Management Challenges of Human Settlements in Ghana" under the broad topic: "Our Environment and Our Health in the Past Half Century" at the 58th Annual New Year School at the University of Ghana, Legon.

The school is a one-week annual extra-mural education programme, organized by the Institute of Adult Education of the University. He said post independence governments generally followed the same policies of supporting housing development for the privileged leaving the urban poor in the hands of slum landlords. These landlords, he said, as the housing crisis deepened, converted the limited toilet and sanitary facilities into rental units thereby further exacerbating the poor environmental and housing conditions of the poor.

Professor Songsore said there were also large gaps between the needs of the people in both rural and urban areas for environmental service and what currently existed.

He said the identification of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment as lead agency in environmental sanitation policy issues was commendable but this had to be matched by adequate financial resources to the District; Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies to perform better.

Overall, since infectious and communicable diseases were still dominant in both rural and urban settlements, there was the need to strengthen primary environmental health care in the rural areas and also to promote the development of urban primary health care to reduce the environmental health burdens.

Professor Songsore said this would improve the general quality of life of the citizenry, promote labour productivity and reduce foreign exchange costs in recurrent drug imports. Dr Moses Adibo, Former Director of The Ghana Health Service, said in spite of difficulties in refuse and solid waste disposal, housing and water supply Ghana had made significant progress as far as health was concerned. He said there had been an improvement in the health infrastructure and the number of healthcare providers but some challenges like indiscriminate disposal of refuse; defecating into polythene bags and throwing them into open drains; food vendors selling at the edge of gutters full of garbage and refusal to wash hands before eating and after visiting the toilet were habits that seriously affected the health of the people.

"The more I see these things and the more I think about them, the more convinced I get that most Ghanaians irrespective of their educational background do not believe in the germ theory." Dr Adibo challenged participants of the New Year School to begin the crusade against those habits to help to improve the health status of the public. 9 Jan. 07