Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR), has described the poor sanitation problem at Salem, a suburb of Teshie, in Accra, as a threat to public health.

This followed the inability of the Ledzokuku-Krowo Municipal Assembly (LEKMA) to make permanent arrangement for the maintenance of the dumping site at Salem, which is close to the sea, leading to indiscriminate dumping in and around the site and the beach.

Mrs Dapaah, who was welcomed to the illegal dumping site by Mrs Evelyn Naa Adjeley Twum Gyamera, Municipal Chief Executive of LEKMA, told the Ghana News Agency she was at the site to acquaint herself with the sanitation situation there.

She called on the Assembly to be more pro-active in tackling sanitation within the communities to solve the problem, saying that, ``let’s always promote the sanitation campaign through our public education to enable us get there one day’’.

Mrs Dapaah asked the MCE to put in place measures to ensure that the containers are emptied regularly and arrangements made for the maintenance of the area.

Mrs Twum-Gyamera assured the Minister of her readiness to ensure cleanliness at the site at all times.

Mrs Dapaah later visited Abokobi in the Ga East Municipal Assembly (GEMA) to also access the sanitation situation there and was welcomed by Madam Janet Tulasi Mensah, Municipal Chief Executive (MEC) for the area, who took her to the old dumping site, where the Minister ordered the removal of all encroachers on the land.

The MCE appealed to the Ministry to construct a transfer station at the site to prevent indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the area.

Mrs Dapaah assured the MCE of Government’s intention to award contracts for the construction of transfer stations at Agbogbloshie, Teshie, and Abokobi, after the first quarter of 2019, `` All projects would be looked into again and tackled one-by-one’’.

She said the time had come for MMDAs to live up to their mandate and make it convenient for people to live under good hygienic conditions.