Regional News of Friday, 5 December 2014

Source: GNA

Stakeholders call for intensive education for cleanliness

Stakeholders at a workshop on the Ebola Virus Disease and Cholera have called for intensive public education on good sanitary practices to curb the spread of diseases.

They also advocated the reintroduction of mass sanitary inspectors to ensure that the communities were kept clean with the strict implementation of the bye-laws on sanitation.

The workshop was organized by Hope for Future Generation (HFFG), a non-governmental organization, which focuses on health.

The participants, made up of health personnel, civil society representatives, environmentalists, and others, noted that the laxity in the enforcement of the sanitation laws, coupled with strict supervision had contributed to filth in the society, resulting in diseases like cholera.

Mr Munkaila Mohammed, Manager in-charge of Monitoring and Evaluation of the HFFG, stated that the strict public sensitization on the issues was a plausible solution to the prevention of diseases.

To this end, he said, his organization had selected 10 districts in the Western Region to embark on a pilot programme on awareness creation on the prevention of diseases, such as cholera.

Though Ghana has not recorded an Ebola case, he said, the HFFG would include it in their programme to create awareness for the people to understand and take precautionary measures against the disease.

The sensitization programme, Mr Mohammed said, would be in the form of jingles, drama, durbars, inter-personal communication, distribution of brochures and radio/television discussion.

The selected districts are Wassa East, Mpohor, Ahanta West, Tarkwa Nsuaem, and Ellembelle.

The rest are Nzema East, Huni Valley, Shama, Jomoro, and Prestea.