Minister wants Ghanaians to take environmental issues seriously

Kumasi, April 22, GNA - Mr. Kofi Opoku Manu, the Ashanti Regional Minister, has said environmental cleanliness held the key to the accelerated socio-economic development of the nation and that Ghanaians should take environmental issues seriously. He said he was not happy that a greater percentage of the nation's resources are normally used to curb filth-related diseases such as malaria, typhoid and diarrhoea.

Mr. Manu was speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop to validate Environmental Sanitation Baseline Data, collected by Municipal, Metropolitan and District assemblies(MMDAs) in Kumasi. The workshop, organized jointly by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Netherlands Government was attended by over 90 participants from the region.

It aimed at championing the development of a comprehensive National Environmental Strategy and Action Plan (NESSAP) and a Strategic Environmental Sanitation Investment Plan (SESIP).

He said more than half of reported cases of illness at Out Patient Departments (OPDs) in health facilities were related to poor environmental sanitation and that this was a challenge to the nation's desire to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and Vision 2020. The Regional Minister attributed some of the causes of the environmental sanitation to increasing urbanization and non adherence to development bye-laws and planning schemes resulting in unauthorized location of buildings along water courses and nature reserves. Mr. Manu said the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development was pursuing measures which, when implemented by MMDAs, would have the potential of improving and sustaining services in the sanitation sub-sector.

Mr. Richard Amoaning, Regional Environmental Officer, expressed regret that Environmental Sanitation Officers had over the years been neglected and appealed to the government to provide them with logistics to enhance their performance. 22 April 09