In the good old days sanitary inspectors went out from the various town councils to enforce environmental health and cleanliness. They were referred to as town council men. The degree of illiteracy at that time was high and town council was generally pronounced as "Tankase" men, and they were also referred to as, "saman saman" because of their uncompromising attitude of summoning to court, those who could not or refused to pay the fine. They were more feared than the Police due to their focus and strict approach to their work and a clear ambition to prevent malaria, cholera, typhoid fever and other forms of preventable disease. These "Tankase" men worked in close cooperation with sanitary inspectors who were on-site inspectors of water supply to identify actual and potential sources of contamination. They also inspected and evaluated physical and environmental structures such as latrines and their nearness to boreholes, in an attempt to prevent ommunicable diseases. The "Tankase" men also swept market and public areas.

These "Tankase" men, even in the seventies, possessed vital information which they used to select appropriate remedial action to improve or protect water supply, household hygiene and environmental cleanliness. They focused mainly on domestic hygiene and welfare of families. These men were highly disciplined. They played an immense role in ensuring that everyone kept his or her house clean. On the spot fines were issued to anyone in a house who exposed garbage to flies, chamber pots containing exposed faeces, dirty gutters and dirty surroundings. They even inspected the water people kept in their barrels for domestic use looking for larvae or other dangerous worms. Anyone who refused to pay the "on the spot" fine was arraigned before a court for causing environmental nuisance that can lead to cholera, malaria or typhoid fever.

Today sanitary inspectors exist only in name because the "Tankase" men who enforced the domestic and environmental laws of these sanitary inspectors, no longer exist and domestic health and cleanliness are completely overlooked. Garbage is poured in gutters especially in big cities like Accra, Kumasi, Cape Coast and Takoradi, breeding flies which hover around, contaminating food that are sold in the open. Mountains of garbage are seen in many places in the cities. The cities are dirty. These, among other reasons, are responsible for the spread of cholera which has claimed about two thousand lives in Accra alone.

These Tankase men who collaborated with sanitary inspectors had vast knowledge in public health and cleanliness. If we look back forty years ago, communicable and deadly diseases were not as rampant as it is today. What then has gone wrong? Commercialisation of garbage collection does not necessarily promote environmental sanitation. House to house inspection which were randomly undertaken by the Tankase men of old was more effective. It kept families, food sellers and water polluters on their toes. Their presence was enough to remind people to clean their gutters and their household. Public health practice which took place four decades ago has seen a rapid evolution or change which has affected general sanitation negatively. The Town and City councils depended on well developed and efficient rules in our towns and cities which was geared towards abating the threat of communicable diseases, malaria, typhoid and cholera.

The health laws or regulations laid down by the councils at that time, were effectively carried out or enforced by the "Tankase" men without allowing themselves to be influenced by bribery and corruption. As part of their duties, the inspectors ordered fumigation which was immediately effected by the "Tankase" men when a contagious disease appeared in a particular community. They also followed strict directions to thoroughly lime damp areas around private places to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and other harmful insects. All the good things that were pursued by the town and city council men and sanitary inspectors in the 70s, were neglected by what later became the Metropolitan assemblies whose main aim is to make profuts from lorry stations, wrongly parked cars and collecting fees from taxi and tro-tro drivers, completely neglecting sanitation and all health standards in the community. It is therefore not surprising that cholera outbreak is on the ascendancy and killing many especially in Accra.

When I was a young boy, I remember very well that every morning I had to carry the container of garbage on my head and poured away and returned home to wash the container. I was made to believe at a very young age that cleanliness is next to godliness so I took part in cleaning the house and the compound all to avoid being issued on the spot fine. We are seeing what we are seeing today because the country's sanitary condition is in deep crisis.

If something pragmatic is not done to re-launch the "Tankase" concept, that money-minded motives of the Metropolitan assemblies, the laissez-faire attitude of Ghanaian families in various households, the stink and dirt of our major cities coupled with government's inaction, it will not be long for ebola to spread to every nook and crook in Ghana. It's the reluctance or inability to pay the piled up arrears in payments due to waste management companies that will make malaria and cholera to continue to claim lives.

Written by Stephen Atta Owusu

Author: Dark Faces At Crossroads

Email: Stephen.owusu@email.com.