Intensive hygiene education, necessary for cholera prevention – Health Officer

Mr Jonas Amanu, the Greater Accra Environmental Health Officer, has called for the intensification education on the dangers of filth resulting in the outbreak of cholera in the metropolis.

He said the situation of poor sanitation in the metropolis had been aggravated by the rural/urban drift which had increased the population and increased pressure on the existing facilities such as public place of convenience and increased refuse generation hence the need for a contingency measures to curb the spread of the disease.

Mr Amanu who said these in an interview with the GNA on Tuesday after visiting some filthy areas in Dansoman and the Agbogbloshie market, explained that illnesses resulting from the consumption of unwholesome foods and water was the most dominant concern of the health authorities.

He said “I have directed the Environmental Health Officers in all the sub-metros and their district heads to visit the high risk areas to intensify their hygiene education to increase awareness for people to be wary of their abysmal attitude towards their personal hygiene and sanitation.”

He said the health of the people should be everyone’s preoccupation and called on all school authorities to ensure that school children do not buy food sold near gutters and other filthy areas adding that “breastfeeding mothers must also be careful with what they touched before they feed their babies”.

Mr Amanu also warned commercial public toilet operators to maintain and ensure a clean environment at their places of convenience.

He appealed to the media especially the radio and television stations to use their medium to spread the message on the need to keep the environment clean.

Madam Sylvia Opoku-Manu, the Assemblywoman for Dansoman Mansralor Electoral Area, said “it is unfortunate that we are still confronted with a grave sanitation which is as a result of our lack of cleanliness.

Due to this the problems are compounded daily through open and indiscriminate defecating, littering of the streets, gutters and water bodies leading to environmental pollution,” she said.

She said the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) was making everything possible to ensure that good sanitation in the communities are enforced so that it did not produce adverse health effects and appealed to the residents to support the assembly to fight against indiscriminate dumping of refuse.

“Good sanitation will depend on the cooperation of all and not government alone,” she added.