Environmental health and sanitation officers discuss policy

Wa, March 27, GNA - Environmental Health and Sanitation Officers in the three Northern Regions are attending a two-day consultative workshop at Wa to discuss the draft revised national environmental health policy. About 40 Regional and District Environmental Health and Sanitation Officers and some District Coordinating Directors are attending the workshop organized by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment.

The revised sanitation policy is aimed at updating the country's sanitation policy, taking into account challenges impeding a smooth implementation of the policies as well as problems posed by rapid urbanization.

Opening the workshop Mr Ambrose Dery, Upper West Regional Minister, urged Ghanaians to recognize the strong correlation between health and environmental sanitation. Mr Dery called for attitudinal change towards environmental sanitation and appealed to opinion leaders, chiefs and the media to play their roles to ensure successful implementation of the country' sanitation policies. Mr Stephen Adongo, Northern Regional Environmental Health and Sanitation Officer, said lack of adequate funding by the district assemblies for sanitation services as one of the problems militating against the smooth operation of the environmental and sanitation unit of the assemblies. He said while the assemblies sometimes found it hard to provide fuel for refuse trucks and tractors, it also took quite some time before broken down refuse trucks were repaired. Mr Adongo said refuse tractors were generally used for purposes other than refuse collection by most of the assemblies in the Region.