The Municipal Chief Executive of Ashaiman in the Greater Accra region, Hon. Albert Boakye Okyere has disclosed that the Assembly spent over 60 percent of its Internal Generated Funds (IGF) on improving Sanitation in the area.
The Ashaiman Municipality over the years had recorded cases of cholera due to the indiscriminate disposal of rubbish, chocked gutters and the practice of open defecation. In an interview with the media, Hon. Okyere said when he assumed office in 2017, most areas in the Municipality had hipped garbage which were not attended to hence his immediate intervention to clear all those areas of garbage and distill the gutters to improve upon the sanitation situation in the area.
According to him, a chunk of the IGF of the Assembly was used to assist residents acquire household toilets with the support of World Bank. “at the Presby Junction, pupils of Presby School couldn’t visit school without tying their nose due to the bad smell but today if you go there, you can stand there and eat”. ………. we also introduced household toilets and currently we have about 4000 households who are on the programme” the MCE stressed.
He added beneficiaries of the household toilets project only paid 30 percent of the entire cost while the Assembly and the World Bank absorbed the rest of the cost for the construction of the toilets to prevent open defecation.
Explaining why it was necessary for the Assembly to commit over 60 percent of its IGF on Sanitation, Hon. Albert Boakye Okyere emphasized that the sanitation situation in the area become a health alert issue that needed an urgent intervention by the Assembly to prevent an imminent outbreak of cholera.
The Ashaiman MCE observed the good sanitation practice introduced by the Assembly in the area have yielded positive results since the Municipality that hitherto recorded cholera cases annually did not record any cholera case for the last two years.
Hon. Okyere stated an undisclosed number of residents who violated the Sanitation bye-laws in the area have been sanctioned while many others are under prosecution for various sanitation offences.
Credit: Nii Okpoti Odamttem
