Agona West Municipal Assembly (AWMA) has swept five eminent awards at the Central Regional Minister's Maiden Excellence Awards in Education, Environmental Health and Sanitation held in Cape Coast.

AWMA under the stewardship of the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, triumphed over 20 Metropolitan Municipal District Assembly (MMDA's) to claim the bragging rights as the best performing MMDA in environmental health and sanitation in the Region.

Other award category won by AWMA were: overall best student in B.E.C.E, third best student in B.E.C.E, second best basic school and second best headteacher in public basic schools in the Region.

The students were adjudged the best based on the Regional B.E.C.E analysis of 2018.

Master Amorin Omar Joao, a former student of Swedru Catholic A and currently a student of St. Augustine’s College, Cape Coast who was the overall best student scored aggregate 06 with a raw score of 504.

The second best basic school was Swedru AMA 'E' Basic School.

Master Theophilus Arkoh also a former student of Swedru AMA 'E' Basic School and currently schooling at Ghana National College, Cape Coast was the third best student with aggregate 06 with a raw score of 486,
whilst Ms Lucy Ama Duker also of Swedru AMA 'E' Basic School emerged as the second best Headteacher.

In this regard, they were presented with laptops, educational materials, desktop computers, reading materials and cash prize.

As the best performing MMDA in Environmental Health and Sanitation, Agona West received a recognised plaque, one motorized tricycle and a trip to any place of choice in Accra by the entire management of the Assembly which will be sponsored by Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

The thematic areas for the best performing MMDA on sanitation were: waste management, sanitation in schools, health care, spillage/drainage (waste water conveyance), legal framework and enforcement of bye-laws on environmental health and sanitation.

The criteria used to declare the winner included the implementation of the thematic areas in the MMDAs which was assessed by Assessment Team for over a period of time from the Central Regional Coordinating Council and the Central Regional Minister.

The elated Mayor of Agona West in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the success of the AWMA commended Swedruman Council of Chiefs and all Chiefs in the Municipality as well as her staff for their numerous assistance towards the monthly clean up exercise to ensure cleanliness in the surroundings.

"This incredible achievement would boost the morale of our highly spirited Staff to continuously give off their best in all aspects of operations to support the Assembly's mission of facilitating the improvement of lives of the people in close collaboration with the private sector and other development partners in the Municipality", Mrs Assan said.

She said the Assembly had put in place achievable measures to ensure Open Defecation Free status by the end of next year.

She said the Assembly in collaboration with UNICEF and the world Bank has embarked on two related programs known as Community Led Total Sanitation and IDA Quick Wins which are aimed at eradicating open defecation in the communities.

"When I assumed office as the MCE in 2017, Agona West was ranked 119th on the District League Table but now we are ranked 19th which means we are making progress".

The District League Table (DLT) is produced annually by UNICEF Ghana and CDD Ghana, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Office of the Head of Local Government Service as a simple ranking tool to determine the level of development in the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.

The DLT focuses on the level of the Districts welbeing in six key sectors: health, education, sanitation, water, security and governance rather than rating Districts by administrative compliance.

The DLT aims at increasing social accountability for development across the country so as to improve state responsiveness in development and service delivery.

Mrs Assan said attitudinal change was key to solve the sanitation problem in the country.

She appealed to the citizenry to make conscious efforts to stop indiscriminate disposal of all forms of waste.

On Education, Mrs Assan said her outfit had continuously supported the Municipal Education Directorate with logistics and financial to enable the Directorate execute its duties effectively and efficiently to improve the standard of education.

The awards ceremony organised by the Regional Minister, Hon. Kwamena Duncan is aimed at promoting competition among MMDAs and motivating them to team up with citizens, innovators and problem solvers to design and implement waste management strategies to improve sanitation in their localities.

Also, the awards seeks to improve quality education and B.E.C.E results in the Region.