The Asante-Akim South District Assembly with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has taken steps to prevent cholera outbreak in the area.

This involves the supply of aqua tabs for water purification in communities identified to be prone to the disease and aggressive promotion of environmental sanitation.

Mr Kofi Agyei, the District Environmental Officer, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that already 1,600 pieces of the tabs had been sent to Juaso, Bompata, Morso, Breku and Akroma.

Huge piles of refuse in communities including Ofoase, Wankyi, Juaso, Morso, Praaso and Yawkei are all being cleared by the Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

The scale-up of preventive activities come amid reported isolated cases of the disease in parts of the Ashanti Region.

Reporters of the nation’s wire service had visited the district under STAR-Ghana’s sponsored media auditing and tracking of development projects, an initiative launched to put the spotlight on how government’s resources were helping to improve the quality of life of the people, particularly the rural population.

The goal is to aid transparency, promote accountability and good local governance.

Mr Adjei said they did not want to be overtaken by events and were doing all they could to save the population from the disease typically transmitted by either contaminated food or water.

He said inadequate household toilets in the area was a major challenge and the situation certainly would have to change.

The assembly for now is focusing on keeping the public facilities clean and intensified its public education effort to assist the people to maintain high standards of environmental sanitation.

Cholera is caused by a bacterium vibrio cholerae and the main symptoms are diarrhoea and vomiting, which could lead to dehydration and even death.