The Local Government minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda has expressed satisfaction at this month National sanitation day held in the Upper East region but reiterated that municipal and district chief executives must institute measures to deal with plastic waste.
Every first Saturday of every month is set aside as national sanitation day during which all Ghanaians are expected to undertake clean up exercises at their various localities to keep their environs clean.
At this month National sanitation day held in the Upper East region and led by Local Government minister, Mr. Alhaji Collins Dauda saw a massive turn-out of people who took to the municipal streets of Bolga, market centers’, the Midwifery and the Nurses training schools’ to clean the environs and also distilled chock gutters in the Bolga municipality.
Mr. Dauda remarked that even before his team got into the old Bolga market to clean, the place was already cleaned.
“On the whole the turn-out has been good, the exercise has been fantastic and unlike in Accra where you have chock gutters, stilled gutters, Bolga is different and is because of the environment. But there is also something here that you don’t find in other places, they are there but they are not as much as we find here in Bolga and that is the issue of plastics bags and plastic materials. You will find plastic materials everywhere and I think that we have to collaborate with the municipal assembly to see whether we cannot find a solution to this problem in Bolgatanga. I know is not peculiar to Bolgatanga, it may be an issue for the northern part of Ghana and that there must be a solution to this problem,” Alhaji Dauda stressed.
He added that though suggestions have been made in dealing with plastic waste management in Bolga, further deliberations will be carried out at the national level to prescribe the best solution to address plastic waste in the upper east region.
Speaking on when government intends enacting the sanitation law to prosecute offenders Mr. Dauda said “I have a big challenge when you enact a law to deal with human behavior , this issue of sanitation has to do with human behavior and you need to do a lot of sensitization and education before you enact the law.
You need to prepare the mindset of Ghanaians and inculcate in them the need to practice good sanitation, that is the time when you enact the law and the law would work.
we don’t want to enact law and have difficulty in enforcing them. if we are not careful and enact the law now we will and have not sensitized the people well enough you will end up arresting people and prosecuting them left right and centre and we need to take time before we come up with the law.”
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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana