Resource gaps militate against sanitation, hygiene policy – Expert
Mr Felix Jefferson Agyei Amakye, a governance expert, has deplored resource gaps in executing the national Sanitation and Hygiene Policy, particularly in resource, enforcement and funding.
He, therefore, called for the establishment of sanitation and hygiene for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to ensure the effective enforcement of the laws.
Mr Amakye said this when he addressed a stakeholders’ forum on Ghana’s Sanitation and Hygiene Policy organized by Voice for Change (V4C) Partnership Project, an evidence-based advocacy programme, at Awutu Beraku in the Central Region.
The V4C programme is being implemented by SNV (Netherlands Development Organization) in collaboration with the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The five-year project is being implemented by SNV together with its alliance of local partner civil society organizations (CSOs) and networks in Ghana to strengthen their capacities to generate reliable and relevant data/evidence to carry out evidence-based advocacy for sustainable improvements in key focus areas.
These relate to renewable energy, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and food security and nutrition.
The Ghana WASH component of the project is dubbed Ghana Sanitation and Hygiene for All (SH4ALL) and Intervention Forum (IF), a non-governmental organization, and one of four local implementing partner CSOs tasked to implement the project in the Awutu Senya East Municipal Assembly (ASEMA).
Mr Amakye told the stakeholders comprising members of the District Assembly such as planning and budget officers, environmental health officers, assembly members, zonal committee chairmen, and unit committee members that the assembly’s sub-structures were endowed with powers to check sanitation in the communities.
“It is not an individual concern but a collective one, and therefore civil society involvement is key. It is a difficult task but don’t back down or relax. Advocacy is difficult but we shall give you the necessary support,” he assured the gathering.
During an open form, it became clear that many communities in the district were overwhelmed by poor sanitation and mountains of refuse, with some assembly members saying the assembly lacked the necessary tools to work with.
However, Mr Amakye said the people did not need to have these implements before disposing of refuse and filth in the communities, and urged the people to tidy up their own environments.
It also became apparent that though bye-laws on sanitation and hygiene existed, community awareness of these laws was quite low, resulting in little or no knowledge about the adverse effects of poor hygiene and sanitation.
Mr Amakye impressed upon officials of the Awutu Senya District Assembly to gazette sanitation and hygiene bye-laws, saying the process had been simplified and was no more complicated.
Source: GNA
