By Michael Foli Jackidy, GNA
Ho (V/R), July 3, GNA – Mrs Edem Degboe Gakpetor, Ho Municipal Environmental Health Analyst, has appealed to the Government to expedite the posting of trained Environmental Health Officers to address the acute staff shortage affecting sanitation management across the country.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Ho in the wake of the recent floods that claimed lives and destroyed properties in parts of the country, she said inadequate staffing was undermining efforts to promote environmental sanitation and prevent flooding.
Mrs Gakpetor said although hundreds of Environmental Health graduates from the Ho, Tamale and Accra Schools of Hygiene had completed their training, many had remained at home for years awaiting financial clearance and posting.
“We want to use the media to appeal to the Government and all stakeholders to help us. About five batches of our colleagues who graduated from the Schools of Hygiene are still at home without postings.
Meanwhile, our staff strength continues to decline as officers retire, while others are overstretched because of the heavy workload,” she said.
She explained that although the Schools of Hygiene operate under the Ministry of Health, graduates could only be employed by the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs after receiving financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance.
She said the prolonged delays were affecting service delivery, as many graduates remained unemployed for several years after completing their training.
“Some of them have diploma qualifications, others have degrees and certificates, yet they have been sitting at home for as long as five years. By the time they are eventually posted, they have forgotten much of what they learnt in school, and we have to spend months retraining them,” she said.
Mrs Gakpetor urged the Government to consider posting the graduates in phases if immediate recruitment of all qualified officers was not financially feasible.
“Even if they cannot employ everyone at once, they should recruit them batch by batch.
This year another batch will graduate and join those already waiting. Posting them gradually will help strengthen environmental health services across the country,” she said.
She disclosed that the Ho Municipal Environmental Health Unit currently had only about 30 officers serving the entire municipality, including five zonal councils, making it difficult to effectively monitor sanitation and enforce environmental health regulations.
She said many people ask whether the town councils are still functioning. They are, but the reality is that the numbers are too few to meet the demands of the work.
Mrs Gakpetor also appealed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to promptly release sanitation funds to Environmental Health Units whenever such allocations were received to enable officers to acquire the tools and equipment needed for effective service delivery.
She stressed that environmental sanitation remained fundamental to national development and called for greater investment in the sector.
“Sanitation is the key to development. We cannot achieve sustainable development without adequate investment in environmental health. We need more personnel, logistics and timely funding to effectively protect our communities,” she said.
Mrs Gakpetor noted that the recent floods had highlighted the importance of effective sanitation and drainage management, urging authorities to strengthen the country’s environmental health workforce to help prevent similar disasters in future.
GNA
Edited By: Maxwell Awumah/ Christabel Addo