Wa, Dec. 11, GNA – The construction of the solid waste treatment and recycling plant at Kperisi in the Wa Municipality is progressing steadily with the structures at various levels of completion.
Mr Emmanuel Volsuuri, the Upper West Regional Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited announced this in Wa during the fourth quarter sitting of the Upper West Regional Inter-agency Coordinating Committee on Sanitation (RICCS).
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cut the sod for the construction of the facility on Friday, October 9, 2020.
He said the offices were at lintel level while the substructure of the main facility had been constructed and oversized concrete cast.
“If all things go on as expected, within the first half of 2022, the facility should be completed. We are looking at attaching a medical waste treatment plant to the facility”, he explained.
Mr Volsuuri added that the facility, when completed, would help contribute to achieving the RICCS’s target of making Wa the cleanest city in Ghana.
Currently, the Upper West Region has 802 communities being Open Defecation Free (ODF) representing 69 per cent of the 1,167 communities, with 178, 276 people living in DOF communities in the region.
“Our biggest challenge is the urban towns who do not want to construct pit latrines by virtue of their status in urban areas”, Mr Alhassan Inussah Agambire, the Upper West Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Environmental Health and Sanitation Department, said in a presentation.
He stressed the need for concerted efforts towards improving the status of sanitation in the region to help reduce the rate of Open Defecation to the barest minimum.
Mr Agambire also urged the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to gazette their by-laws with deterrent measures on Open Defecation.
The RICCS is currently assisting the Wa Municipal Assembly to fine-tune its by-laws, particularly on sanitation for onwards gazetting.
He also identified inadequate staffing as a major challenge to the fight against sanitation issues in the region, adding that, the ideal ratio of Environmental Health Officer to population was 1:700, but that the ratio currently stood at 1:4274.
On the 2021 World Toilet Day celebration, Mr Agambire said the committee would launch the District and Senior High Schools ODF league tables in early 2022 as part of activities to mark the day.
GNA