By Benjamin Mensah
Accra, June 27, GNA- The Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs is calling for increased efforts in changing the mindset of the citizenry, in addition to increased investment in sanitation infrastructure for enhanced national sanitation.
The Ministry believes that such efforts to change the mindset must begin at schoolchildren.
Sector Minister Ahmed Ibrahim said: “We can construct public toilets, provide waste bin and improved collection systems, but unless attitudes and behaviours change, our progress will remain limited.
“The long-term solution, therefore, lies in building a culture of environmental responsibility, a culture that must be nurtured from an early age.”
The Minister added: “This is where schools become critically important.”
In a speech reach for him by his Deputy, Madam Rita Naa Odoley Sowah, in Accra, at the opening of the Fifth Executive Breakfast Conversation, Mr Ibrahim stressed the need for all to be sanitation-conscious and have in mind that sanitation is a shared responsibility.
The Executive Breakfast Conversation, on the theme, “Sanitation as a Key Performance Indicator for MMDCEs and the Role of Relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies: Prospects, Opportunities and Constraints, was organised by the Christian humanitarian organisation World Vision Ghana (WVG) in collaboration with KingsHall Media, the Zoomlion Foundation, the Ghana Education Service, the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources, among others.
The Executive Breakfast Dialogue which began in 2022 is a platform for stakeholders to engage in high level, frank, evidence informed and fforward-looking dialogue on the environmental sanitation situation in the country and the implications for health and socio-economic development.
The theme for the Conversation comes at the back of a government policy to tie the performance of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to the state of sanitation in their areas.
The President had said that Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) would ill be held directly accountable for the state of sanitation in their areas. “If an MMDCE is not able to keep their district clean, that DCE has no business being in that office,” he warned.
The Conversation critically assessed the policy initiatives and the practical actions towards the actualiasation of the President’s vision for environmental sanitation for all MMDCEs.
The Conversation was also used to launch the seventh School Sanitation Solutions (Triple S) Challenge flagship programme in which the WVG and its partners seek, through an essay and quiz competitions solutions on environmental sanitation from children in Basic Five to Junior High School Two.
World Vision Ghana National Director Tina Mukanda commended President Mahama and the Government of Ghana for making sanitation a national development priority.
She commended the Government’s decision to make sanitation a key performance indicator for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, as well as its commitment to allocate 10 per cent of the District Assemblies Common Fund to environmental sanitation initiatives
She reaffirmed her organisation’s commitment to prioritise the delivery of WASH services in its interventions.
She said: “It is refreshing to note that, the recommendations of previous conversations, may have also found favour with the government, in taking steps to implement two major policy initiatives
She added: “I am particularly very happy that the conversations have not just become a talk shop, but also a solution centre producing practical and groundbreaking recommendations to address WASH service delivery and challenges that we are facing in this sector as an organisation.”
With 18 per cent of Ghanaian households still lacking toilet facilities, Dr Mukanda said there were high stakes for investment in sanitation.
Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, the Director General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), who chaired the conversation, called on all the citizenry to actively participate in national sanitation efforts to bring about sustainable changes in environmental sanitation
You are the change. We are all part of the change. Even our children must understand that they, too, are the change,” she stated.
Dr Amoah said all 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies had prepared certified Medium-Term Development Plans for the 2026–2029 period, with sanitation interventions deliberately integrated into the planning process.
Master Artaldus Sung Kuutanaa, the reigning Child Sanitation Diplomat, bemoaned the ugly sight toilet that floated in recent flood waters, with consequential spreading of diseases.
“We need more toilets that can withstand floods,” he said.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Odeng Adade
Reporter: Benjamin Mensah
Reporter’s email: [email protected]