Health News of Friday, 6 October 2017

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Effutu Municipal Assembly to end open defecation by 2019

The assembly has planned to radically increase access to toilet facilities in the municipality The assembly has planned to radically increase access to toilet facilities in the municipality

There will be no open defecation in the Effutu Municipality by March 2019, Mr John Ninson, Effutu Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), has said.

To achieve this, the Assembly has planned to radically increase access to toilet facilities in the municipality, particularly along the coastal stretch and other designated areas, all in a move to reach the municipal target ahead of the regional target to end the menace by June 2019.

Construction work of a 23-sweater biogas-toilet facility with other auxiliary and ancillary facilities to be replicated in other areas in the Metropolis had already commenced to end the menace along the coastline.

Mr Ninson revealed this at a staff durbar in Winneba when the Central Regional Minister, Mr Kwamina Duncan visited the Assembly as part of his tour of the Region.

He described the facility, which is being built through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement as environmentally friendly, affordable and easy to use by every pocket size.

Speaking at the gathering, Mr Duncan, praised authorities of the Assembly and the people for maintaining a tidy environment and commended the Municipality of being one of the cleanest, across the country

He tasked them to maintain their efforts to make the municipality and the Winneba Township the cleanest place in Ghana and further asked them to be more ingenious and bring all on board to share the vision of the Assembly.

Highlighting his personal vision for the Region, he mentioned improved sanitation, quality education, job creation and investment as his topmost priority areas and urged all the departments to collaborate to achieve the targets.

He pointed out that, the Central Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) had set the ground rules and targets for the MMDAs to achieve the three thematic areas and will name and shame poorly performed Assemblies when the results are released.

Mr Duncan asked them to reignite their bye-laws to effectively help manage their localities and strengthen their revenue generation efforts to rake in the much needed revenue to support development.

He tasked the assembly to join forces with all relevant stakeholders to stem illegal sand winning activities in the area to save the environment from further degradation

"As political and security heads of this municipality, you must do everything possible to arrest these people who hide behind questionable documents to destroy our green vegetative cover and let the security agencies deal with them," he said.

He again, pledged to liaise with all the stakeholders to end the modus operandi of land guards who operate with impunity in the region.