Media must help fight insanitary conditions
Hope for Future Generations (HFFG), a non-governmental organisation, has held a media interaction during which ways of getting the mass media to report extensively on sanitation and how to maintain a clean environment in some selected areas of the country were discussed.
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The areas chosen include: Ga South, Ga West and Ga Central in the Greater Accra Region; Komenda and Cape Coast both in the Central Region.
HFFG is a local partner of the Ghana-Netherlands Water, Access, Sanitation and Hygiene programme (GNWASH). The partners aim to reduce open defecation in the selected areas and improve on sanitation in the country generally.
The Forum
The Project Co-ordinator of HFFG, Mr James Anquadah, said maintaing a clean environment and issues regarding the provision of potable water were serious challenges confronting urban communities in Ghana.
He also said the practice of open defecation was very prevalent in the areas that were selected and added that urgent actions were required to rid the areas of the negative behaviour.
He indicated that in order to achieve success in the fight against insanitary conditions, the media would have to play a leading role by highlighting the disadvantageous aspects of poor sanitation, including open defecation’s Sanitation Demand and Sanitation Marketing component of the GNWASH programme, it would hold community dialogues to help address sanitation problems confronting the communities.
The Assistant Chief Environmental Health Officer of Ga West, Mr Boniface Ashalley, expressed the need for laws to deal with people who littered the environment and appealed for the old town council system of ensuring a clean environment to be revived to make people sit up.
“It will contribute to the cessation of open defecation and also improve environmental hygiene,” he said.
