The Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Alhaji Collins Dauda, has instructed Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA’s) in the Greater Accra Region to submit proposals showing how they plan to prevent cholera in the region in 2016.
At a meeting in Accra, the Minister also gave the MMDAs a one week ultimatum to submit the cholera-halting programs and strategies to the ministry for review and implementation in their respective areas.
[contextly_sidebar id=”dssuBTxYlZwdi8SehLkrTrxWIGUQ3rXX”]Alhaji Collins Dauda said the country in 2014 recorded 28,975 cholera cases with 243 deaths of which majority of the cases were recorded in the Greater Accra Region.
This, he said, led to the creation and institutionalization of the National Sanitation Day (NSD) at the end of 2014.
He said the institution of the NSD would hopefully get the citizenry to change their attitudes towards the indiscriminate dumping of refuse and littering and help revive the spirit of communal labor.
The minister also said the initial impact of the change of attitudes, resulted in the drastic reduction of cholera cases in 2015 to 692 with 15 deaths, adding that it was still possible to prevent the outbreak of the disease in 2016.
He urged MMDAs to seriously undertake the NSD exercise in their various assemblies to promote environmental and public health in the country.
Alhaji Dauda said every citizen has the responsibility of keeping their environment and the country clean and the best way to do that is to encourage people to participate in the NSD.
The next NSD is slated for Saturday March 5, 2016.
This is done nationwide on every first Saturday of the month.
Source: GNA