Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Andy Osei Okrah, has urged the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to make sanitation a priority.
He said they should combine public education with rigid enforcement of bye-laws enacted to keep the communities clean.
He was addressing a day’s workshop held for District Chief Executives (DCEs), District Coordinating Directors, environmental health officers and planners in Kumasi.
The workshop was under the theme, “Inducing MMDAs to transform urban sanitation services through liquid waste management strategy implementation.”
It was organized by the International Water Resource Centre (IRC) with support from the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry, Department for International Development (DFID) and IMC Worldwide.
The goal was to put the spotlight on the sanitation challenges facing the nation and the way forward. The Deputy Regional Minister said more needed to be done to tackle open defecation and prevent diseases including cholera and typhoid.
Madam Vida Duti, Country Director for IRC, announced that, MMDAs, which took steps to promote good environmental sanitation would be rewarded with cash.
She said she found it disheartening Ghana’s ranking as the seventh dirtiest country in the world.
It was to help correct this that the IRC was promoting competition among the MMDAs where the best performing assemblies received cash prizes of between £200,000 and £600,000, she added.
She said her organization was focusing on liquid waste disposal.
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Source: GNA