By Emmanuel Nyatsikor, GNA
Ho, June 10, GNA – An Environmental Analyst Tuesday stated that flooding in parts of the country, especially Accra was not only an engineering issue but also a sanitation and behavioural challenge.
He said plastics, refuse and silt clogged drains, preventing stormwater flow which lead to flooding.
“Although climate change and heavy rainfall contribute to flooding, poor sanitation, indiscriminate waste disposal and blocked drainage systems remain major drivers,” he said.
Reverend Richard Mawutor Buamah, the Environmental Analyst stated this in a press release titled “Ghana’s Unsung Pillars of Sanitation, Public Health, Behavioural Change And Flood Prevention” and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Ho.
He noted that the country continued to face recurring floods that destroyed lives, property and livelihoods and also increased public health risks like cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea, malaria and hepatitis.
“Ghana’s sanitation challenges are strongly influenced by human behaviour whilst disregard for sanitation regulations persisted despite public awareness,” Rev. Buamah said.
He stated that suitable solutions therefore required behavioural and attitudinal change alongside infrastructure development.
The Environmental Analyst intimated that Environmental Health Officers (EHOs), whose work included sanitation management, waste control, environmental monitoring, disease prevention, public education, behavioural change promotion, enforcement of sanitation laws should be at the centre of flood prevention.
He stated that though they played key role in driving this change through community engagement, school health programmes, advocacy and education, Environmental Health Units across the country faced serious constraints.
Rev Buamah named some of the constraints as inadequate staffing, logistics and funding adding “also many trained graduates from the School of Hygiene remain unemployed, limiting national capacity to address sanitation and environmental health challenges effectively.”
He said this gap weakened enforcement of sanitation laws, including the Local Government Act (2016), Public Health Act (2012), Environmental Protection Act (2025) and related planning and sanitation regulations.
The Environmental Analyst was of the view that improving EHOs – to – population ratios and adequately resourcing these units would strengthen inspection, environmental surveillance, waste management, public education and flood prevention.
He noted that EHOs were therefore not just inspectors but Frontline public health protectors, environmental managers, and behavioural change agents.
“Their work is essential to building cleaner communities, reducing disease outbreaks and improving climate and flood resilience.
Rev Buamah therefore called for urgent action to recruit and deploy qualified graduates, improve logistics and funding, strengthen enforcement of sanitation laws and include Environmental Health Professionals in policy making and planning.
He said to invest in Environmental Health Services was therefore a strategic investment in the country’s public health, environment and sustainable development.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah /Kenneth Odeng Adade