Deployment of Sanitation Brigade begins next month

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Mr Michael Dzato (3rd left), Deputy Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources interacting with Mr Jonathan Slater (left), Prize Manager of the IMC Worldwide at the workshop in Accra. Those in the picture includes Mr Mawuena Dotse (4th left), a Consultant of the Maple Consult and other officials. Picture: Gabriel Ahiabor

Mr Michael Dzato (3rd left), Deputy Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources interacting with Mr Jonathan Slater (left), Prize Manager of the IMC Worldwide at the workshop in Accra. Those in the picture includes Mr Mawuena Dotse (4th left), a Consultant of the Maple Consult and other officials.
A nationwide deployment of sanitation brigade is to begin in August this year with an initial 1100 of them going to 22 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs).

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr Joseph Adda, who made this known in Accra, did not mention the beneficiary MMDAs.

Event
This was contained in a speech read on behalf of the minister at a Sanitation Challenge for Ghana (SC4Gh) Learning and Practice Convening (LPC) workshop for 17 participating MMDAs yesterday.

The two-day LPC workshop seeks to stimulate peer learning exchange and co-generate innovations to inform improved practices and speedy implementation of liquid waste management (LWM) value chain results captured in the strategies of the 17 MMDAs. The MMDAs will also go through judging criteria and processes.

It will also facilitate field visits to moderate liquid waste treatment and reuse facilities in Accra and Tema to enable MMDAs to jointly reflect on ways to adapt and enhance partnerships with non-state actors to intensify the implementation of activities.

Concept

The Sanitation Brigade concept is one of the interventions made by the government to improve on the country’s sanitation sector.

Members of the brigade are to ensure adherence to the rules and regulations on sanitation in both state and private properties within the MMDAs.

They will conduct regular visits to all offices to ensure compliance on sanitation issues and where necessary, take legal action against those infringing on the laws.

Each of the 22 MMDAs will have about 50 of the brigade members.

Training of members of the brigade is expected to begin next week prior to their deployment.

Other interventions

Mr Adda said the ministry had also initiated processes to undertake other interventions such as the evacuation of additional dump sites in 22 MMDAs across the country, the procurement of refuse collection trucks and equipment and the rolling out of a street-sweeping scheme to keep ceremonial and major streets in the country clean at all times.

Others are part payment of outstanding waste collection bills, facilitation of processes for the completion of already-started landfill projects within the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) and restructuring of waste management business value chain to ensure innovation and hands-on solutions to Ghana’s sanitation challenges.

Waste collection services will also be streamlined to make them sustainable. Besides, the ministry is also negotiating the acquisition of parcels of land for the construction of integrated treatment facilities countrywide.

Among interventions already made by the government are ensuring a 24-hour operation at the Tema landfill site, while under the GAMA project, over 6,000 household toilets in low-income communities and 260 institutional toilets have been built.

According to Mr Adda, the Central Accra Sewerage System which included a treatment plant and pump stations had also been completed, while the construction of 200,000 toilets as part of a one-household, one-toilet programme had been initiated.

Source: dailygraphiceditorials
BY: Edmund Smith-Asante

Lack of toilets in schools hindering girls education

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Lack of toilets in schools hindering girls education

it is estimated that almost 50 percent of basic schools in the country do not have access to toilets and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities.

This situation it is said makes it difficult for girls in their menstrual period to stay in school during that time of the month.

As part of activities marking this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day, an awareness programme was held in Tema aimed at educating girls, boys and stakeholders on the benefits of menstrual hygiene for girls.

It was held on the theme: “No more limits, empowering women and girls through menstrual hygiene management.” More than 1,000 students of basic and second-cycle schools in the Tema metropolis attended the programme.

The event was organised by the Ghana Education Service, the World Bank, GAMA Sanitation and Water Project, the Global Partnership for Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Unilever Ghana Foundation.

In an interview with journalists, the Deputy Director in charge of Environmental Health and Management at the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr Kweku Quansah, said the celebration of the day would help break the silence and build awareness of menstruation to enable women and girls to reach their full potential.

Access to WASH facilities

According to Mr Quansah, statistics from the Education Management Information System (EMIS) said close to 50 per cent of all basic schools in the country did not have access to toilets and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities and that ought to be addressed.

He stressed that the lack of access to WASH facilities and regular water supply sources had made it difficult for students to use school latrines and promote positive hygienic practices and habits.

He called on metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to prioritise the provision of these facilities to enable the children to learn in a clean, safe and healthy learning environment.

“If a girl stays in school for one year, she is able to reduce the infant mortality rate by close to five to 10 per cent. There is a direct impact on attracting girls to stay in school and also providing them with WASH facilities so that when they are in their menses, they do not stay out of school,” Mr Quansah stated.

He said in many rural settings, many girls dropped out of school due to the lack of WASH facilities, urging assemblies to take up the challenge and provide such facilities.

Education

The acting Tema Central Sub-Metro Director of Health Services, Dr Akosua Osei Manu, advised the girls to wash their hands with soap under running water before putting on their sanitary pads and ensure proper use of the sanitary pads to prevent leakages.

She also stressed the need for all stakeholders to provide support to girls to enable them to manage their menstrual periods by observing good menstrual hygiene practices.

Local materials

Two traditional rulers, the Divisional Chief of Gomoa Akyempim Traditional Area, Nana Ogyedom Ama Tsetsewa, and the Queenmother of the Twifo Hemaa Traditional Area, Nana Adjoa Timaa, bemoaned the lack of information and sanitary products in some parts of the country and stressed on the use of clean, cost-saving menstrual management materials by adolescent girls to deal with menstrual hygiene.

Source: dailygraphic.com

Mallam-Kasoa road reopened to traffic

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Traffic now flows smoothly at Mallam Juction following the reopening Picture: INNOCENT K.OWUSU

The section was closed to traffic on May 1, this year, to make way for the construction of a drainage.

The opening of the road came as a huge relief to road users who had to endure the inconveniences caused by hectic vehicular traffic when sections of the road were blocked.

At a point, the situation was so bad that commuters from Kasoa to Accra had to spend about three hours in traffic during rush hours.

Following concerns raised by the travelling public, a Sanitation Engineer and Contractor for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation project, Mr Gabriel Engmann, gave an assurance that work was being expedited to open the road to the public on Saturday, June 2, 2018 ahead of schedule.

Observations

When the Daily Graphic visited the project site at Mallam Junction at about 9 a.m. last Saturday, the team observed that the road had been opened to traffic.

There was a sharp contrast between the traffic situation at the beginning of last week and Saturday, as vehicles were moving without any delay.

It was observed that the pressure on personnel from the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service who managed traffic had gone down, with just two of the police officers spotted around the area.

At the time of the visit, some civil works were still ongoing to put the road to its original shape.

The workers were working on the peripherals and restoring the medians of the road.

Dust suppression mechanisms were also being put in place to minimise the impact of dust from the construction site.

Diligence

Mr Engmann told the Daily Graphic at the project site that work was being done to smoothen the about 500-metre portion of the road that was cut for the construction of the drain.

“We opened the road to the public last Friday, June 1, and traffic is in order now.

“We are trying our best now to be on top of the environmental impact situation in terms of the dust that is generated because of the exposed surfaces. We want to minimise the effect of the dust on visibility and the health of people who live around the project site,” he said.

He added that most of the work to smoothen the surface of the road would be done during the night when traffic was low.

Timelines

Asked whether the project would be completed in time, he said: “The contract shows that this project should be completed and ready for handover by the end of July but we are anticipating that all remedial and peripheral works will be done ahead of this deadline.”

Mr Engmann urged members of the public to desist from dumping refuse into drains.

He urged metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in GAMA to enforce Sanitation bye-laws to check the malpractice.

Source: dailygraphic.com