Minister pledges support to gazette sanitation bylaws

Mr. Charles Lwanga Puozuing, the Upper West Regional Minister, has assured the Upper West Regional Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee on Sanitation (RICCS) of his support to ensuring all districts and municipalities in the region have gazetted sanitation byelaws.

The RICCS had recognised the importance of gazetted sanitation bylaws at the district and municipal levels in enhancing the sanitation in the region including ending open defecation.

The Committee, however, observed that some districts and Municipalities in the region had developed bylaws but they could not gazette them due to the high cost of gazetting bylaws in the country.

Currently, only the Nandom and Lambussie Districts had gazetted bylaws on sanitation through the support of the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV).

Speaking at the Committee’s meeting in Wa, Mr. Puozuing said he would support RICCS to lobby development partners and non-government organisations in the sanitation sector to fund the gazetting of the bylaws.

“Gazetting the bylaws should not be a problem. Let us get all the districts to put their bylaws together.”, adding, “if we have them together, we can get some organisations or NGOs to support us to gazette them”, he said.

The Minister also urged RICCS to put in measures to ensure the success of the yet-to-be-launched National Sanitation Day by President John Dramani Mahama as part of efforts to scale up the sanitation campaign in the region.

He suggested increased media engagement and stakeholder partnership on sanitation issues in the region, and introducing a slogan such as “See Something, Say Something” about sanitation, among others, as ways to increase the sanitation campaign.

Stakeholders at the RICCS meeting expressed concern about the insanitary conditions and in some cases, lack of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities in some schools, especially public schools and in the communities.

In a presentation, Madam Freda Naatu, the Upper West Regional Director, Environmental Health and Sanitation Department, observed that some food vendors and caterers at some restaurants and hotels in the region failed to go through health screening as required by the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851).

She, therefore, urged effective collaboration between the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Ghana Health Service and the Municipal and District Assemblies to ensure that all food sellers and caterers in the region went through regular health screening and issued certificates before they could operate.

She indicated that the Department was working hard with the support from its partners to enhance the sanitation situation in the region.

Madam Naatu stressed the need for Non-governmental and Civil Society Organisations in the sanitation sector in the region to revisit the pro-poor intervention to support vulnerable people to construct and own resilient latrines.

She said that was because some people were willing to own and use household latrines but could not afford durable latrines due to financial constraints.

Source: GNA

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