Improve sanitation to promote economic dev. – Minister

The Ashanti Regional Minister Alexander Ackon is advocating increased environmental sanitation to promote economic development.

He explains that ensuring proper sanitation will reduce the economic burden in terms of cost on health care provision and improve available human resource to boost the socio-economic development of Ghana.

Speaking to the media after the 17th National Sanitation Day (NSD) exercise in Kumasi He called for increased community involvement in the programme in order to promote hygiene and avoid preventable diseases.

The NSD started on November 1, 2014 and has since been observed on every first Saturday of the month as a national exercise aimed at inculcating in the citizens the observance of good sanitation habits.

The 17th edition which happens to be the 3rd this year witnessed the participation of officers from various security agencies as well as celebrated music artistes under the leadership of Broadway Entertainment.

The celebrities including Rex Omar, Reggie Rockstone of VVIP and Guru expressed gross concern about how filth was posing a great danger to the lives of many Ghanaians.

They urged Ghanaians to make it a daily habit to improve upon their hygienic conditions by cleaning their communities daily.

Rex Omar charged Ghanaians to de-politicize the exercise and see it as a national call to duty.

The Ashanti Regional Minister Alexander Ackon bemoaned the level of apathy with which some residents related to the exercise.

According to him, it is wrong for members of communities who are guilty of creating the filth to just look on as authorities and waste management companies cleared the filth.

"It is important to deepen the involvement of communities in the National Sanitation Day Exercise in order to ensure its sustainability, " He stressed.

Mr. Ackon also called for attitudinal change intimating that the economic costs of clearing filth and its attendant diseases can be reduced if the attitude of the people towards sanitation is changed.

The Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive Kojo Bonsu expressed gratitude to waste management experts Zoomlion for their support.

Zoomlion Ghana Limited has been supporting the exercise since its inception with logistics and equipment.

Personnel from Zoomlion were deployed to desalt drains and clear rubbish with the introduction of the tricycle concept to properly dispose of accumulated rubbish.