Mr Emmanuel Abuanor Nortey, the Ga South Municipal Coordinating Director, has called on the community members to complement the government’s efforts at ensuring good sanitation in all the communities. He said the burden on the assemblies to ensure good environmental sanitation everywhere was enormous so there was the need for everyone to observe proper sanitation.

Mr Nortey said this when the Assembly, in partnership with the Hope for Future Generation (HFFG), a non-governmental organization, organized a sanitation accountability forum under the Ghana-Netherlands Water, Access, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme.

The programme provided a learning platform for community members to identify their needs, and to better understand their priorities on sanitation and how to curb open defecation.

Mr Nortey said the programme was also to activate implementation of result oriented activities in the communities and to end open defecation and facilitate the construction of household toilets.

Ms Janet Dufie Arthur, the Project Coordinator of HFFG and a facilitator said the communities needed to know their responsibilities on WASH, which were linked to the obligation of the State.

She said the activities addressed community members’ access to relevant information to enable them to influence at the local level, to improve the reliability of the Assembly.

“The activities the participants went through were meant to improve and bridge the gap between the people and local leaders and also to enhance environmental sanitation,” she said.

Others were to strengthen the demand and supply side of accountability at the municipal and community level, increased democratic credibility and accountability of HFFG’s community and the strengthening of relationship between the Assembly and the people.

She urged the mass media to devote more time to discussing good environmental sanitation to ensure massive civic education and adoption of the recommendation of the participants.

Participants called for legal and regulatory framework to be firmly enforced to ensure compliance and acceptable behaviour from all sections of communities in the Ga South District.