Kumasi, April 22, Ghanadot/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.
GNA
