Wa, June 29, GNA - The Upper West Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service in collaboration with the Ashanti Gold are to combat the incidence of malaria in the Wa Municipality.

Ashanti Gold would carry out a five year sustained indoor residual spraying programme to help to reduce the population of mosquitoes that infect people with malaria parasites.

Mr Duogo Yakubu, Wa Municipal Chief Executive, announced this at the first ordinary meeting of the Assembly in Wa on Wednesday and said the programme would help to improve the health status of the people.

He said the Assembly was under pressure to manage its liquid and solid waste disposals and appealed to the Local Government Service under the Local Government Service Delivery Programme to support the Assembly to develop a landfill.

On revenue generation, he said, the Assembly had succeeded in collecting a paltry sum of GH¢60,934.00 out of its targeted revenue of GH¢324,799.00 and suggested to the house to consider public private partnership to improve its revenue generation.

Mr Yakubu said a good number of prospective farmers in the Municipality were still looking for tractors to plough their farms, explaining that tractor service for the season was a big challenge to many farmers.

Alhaji Issahaque Alhassan, Deputy Upper West Regional Coordinating Director, who deputized for the Regional Minister, tasked the Assembly to develop policies and programmes that would impact positively on the lives of the people.

Alhaji Alhassan said anything short of that would raise many questions about their operations and that might affect their revenue mobilization efforts.

He, therefore, advised the Assembly to review its policies and programmes for the past to avoid mistakes.

"Your policies and programmes should not be the types that would seek to solve problems, rather they should be proactive to prevent problems from occurring", Alhaji Alhassan cautioned.

The Deputy Coordinating Director suggested to the house to adopt modern systems and approaches such as the payment of revenue through the bank account of the Assembly to avoid embezzlement and misappropriation.

He called for the effective involvement of technocrats from alliance agencies to close the gaps and opportunities that people exploited to their advantage.

Alhaji Alhassan bemoaned the indiscriminate setting up of structures on waterways and the non-compliance of private developers to provide toilets facilities in their new houses.

He tasked the Assembly to enforce its bye-laws to improve its sanitation management and save the Municipal from becoming a slum in the near future.