Communities asked to establish burial grounds

The Sissala East District Assembly has directed all communities in the District to establish burial grounds at the end of October 31, this year.

Traditional rulers in collaboration with all other stakeholders in the communities would be responsible for identifying burial sites, which would be certified and approved by the district environmental officer as burial sites.

The directive has become necessary following the warning by the Ghana Community Water and Sanitation Agency that burial of corpses in the compounds and rooms in some communities in the Region could affect the quality of water provided for the people.

Mr. Johnson Saborh, Sissala East District Chief Executive, who announced this at the second ordinary session of the assembly held in Tumu, said the district chief executive would give authorisation for places identified as burial grounds.

He noted that apart from affecting water quality, the practice could also be a major source of spreading of communicable diseases in the communities and must be stopped now.

Mr. Saborh encouraged the assembly members, traditional rulers and unit committee members to play their roles appropriately and ensure that the deadline given was met without fail.

On Cholera and Ebola control, Mr. Saborh said a committee had been constituted and had been working very hard to keep off those diseases from the district.

He called on the traditional rulers, assembly members and the general public to assist the communities with appropriate education on the two diseases to help secure the people from contracting them.

Dr. Musheibu Alfa Mohammed, Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, said Sissala East District as a frontier district bordering Burkina Faso, he urged health and relevant institutions to put necessary measures in place and educate the people to safeguard against any entry of the disease into Ghana.

He appealed to community members to keep their surroundings clean and always wash their hands with soap with running water when the return from toilet and funerals grounds where the shaking of hands were the common practice.