Enact bye-laws to bite sanitation offenders - Tangoba Abayage urges Builsa South Assembly

Tangoba Abayage, the Upper East Regional Minister has advocated for the enactment of bye-laws in the Builsa South District to punish sanitation offenders.

Ms. Abayage said the bye-laws are necessary and would help the area fight against its serious plastic waste problem and improve the environment.

Speaking on the sideline after performing the inaugural ceremony on behalf of President Akufo Addo, to swear in members of the Builsa South District Assembly in capital Fumbisi Thursday, Ms. Abayage said the Assembly had the authority to put in place rules and regulations to address the poor sanitary conditions in the area.

She therefore urged the Assembly to attend to the sanitation challenges with due urgency by enacting bye-laws that would severely punish people who pollute the environment.

Ambassador Abayage accentuated calls by the President for cleaner environments and called for a collective responsibility to ensure the safest environment for all.

She said: “as we drove to the assembly, I noticed the road to the assembly is all littered with plastic waste, and this speech by the president is that you have the mandate to enact bye-laws to use to sanitize your district. As an assembly, take this seriously. If you don’t have the bye-laws already, enact the bye-laws. If you have the bye-laws, let them bite and be responsible for your own environment”.

On the functions of the Assembly, the Minister urged members to explore avenues and work towards a diversified and commercially oriented agricultural sector to generate employment for the people, especially the youth, to address poverty in the area.

She mentioned that opportunities abound in government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs policy and other initiatives and urged the people to pursue them to improve their welfare and well-being.

“Government has launched a number of policies and programmes, such as One Village, One Dam, Free SHS, Planting for Food and Jobs, Planting for Food and Exports etc. aimed at improving the welfare and well-being of Ghanaians. We must take advantage of them to better ourselves”.

Ms. Abayage invited members to take advantage of efforts being made by government, through the ministry of local government and rural development, in the area of property rates, in addition to other innovative systems, to enhance the district’s financial muscle.

She explained the assembly can achieve that (improvement of its internally generated fund) by vigorously pursuing street naming, property addressing and working hand-in-hand with the National Digital Property Addressing System and the Ghana Post GPS.

District Chief Executive, Daniel Kwame Gariba, who was impressed by the turnout described it as a big feat for the Assembly.

He said though a presiding member was not elected, he was optimistic the members would elect one in their next meeting in 10 days’ time.