SANITATION DESERVES GREATER ATTENTION

THE nation’s capital city, Accra, and, indeed, some major towns in the country have been grappling with poor sanitation for quite some time now. This is so because the tonnes of waste generated by residents seem to have overwhelmed the authorities.
As residents, we tend not to appreciate that our actions contribute to the problem. It is common to see residents disposing of their refuse anyhow, without caring about the repercussions of their acts on the environment and the rest of society.
What makes the situation even more alarming is the fact that majority of food vendors operate in very filthy and unsanitary conditions, thereby compromising the health of consumers.
It is no wonder that the Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (retd), has thrown the searchlight on the problem and reminded Ghanaians of the need to take action to arrest the challenge because poor sanitation was the cause of the high disease burden on the economy.
Speaking at the launch of the 6th National Food Safety Week in Accra, Major Quashigah noted that the total number of reported yearly outpatient cases involving food-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera and hepatitis B was quite high, with an equally corresponding death rate.
Dismayed by the condition, he advised the public to take proper care of their environment and not underestimate the dangers caused by diseases resulting from poor food safety and hygiene.
We commend the organisers for the programme. However, the message should be carried to all corners by major stakeholders such as the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, the Food and Drugs Board, the Ghana Standards Board and the various district assemblies, to ensure that concerted efforts are made to undertake an awareness drive on the dangers posed by poor sanitation.
The exercise should embrace the whole country and specifically at the markets, meat shops, wayside groceries, street vendors, sachet water producers and hawkers because they serve the bulk of the food needs of majority of the people.
In addition to the education drive, the participants should be screened and made to understand that ill-health and poverty are bedfellows and that they retard development. After all, if the same people whom they intend to serve are being killed by preventable diseases, then their wealth creation efforts would be thwarted.
While food vendors are being sensitised, we envisage that the problem of waste disposal will be made part and parcel of the sensitisation drive to make people to develop a healthy attitude towards waste disposal to eliminate the practice where people sell in filthy surroundings.
The clarion call has been made and there is the need for us to develop a good hygienic and sanitation culture to protect us from avoidable illnesses.