By Joseph Agrace Wiyorbie, GNA
Wa (UW/R), Nov. 04, GNA – The Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church, Upper West Administrative Field Unit (UWAFU), has observed the National Sanitation Day with a clean-up exercise aimed at improving sanitation and promoting environmental cleanliness in the Upper West Region.
The exercise, which brought together pastors, elders and members of the Church, formed part of the Church’s commitment to supporting national efforts to address poor sanitation and ensure a clean and healthy environment.
It was also aimed at inculcating the habit of cleanliness among members of the church, especially the younger generation, and the public.
Speaking at the clean-up exercise in Wa, Pastor Whaley Asonre Aboungo, Director of UWAFU, said as Christians, it was their scriptural duty to be clean and keep their surroundings clean wherever they found themselves.
He said in light of that, the SDA Church had adopted the first Sunday of every month to complement the government’s directive of observing National Sanitation Day on the first Saturday of every month.
He said as a result, the Administrative Unit had directed all SDA churches in the region to undertake clean-up exercises to keep the environment clean and reduce outbreaks of sanitation-related ailments, such as cholera and typhoid, in the region.
The Wa Central SDA Church and the Kpaguri Estate SDA Church undertook a joint clean-up exercise at the Wa Municipal Hospital.
Pastor Aboungo said the Church had observed the poor sanitary condition of the Municipal Hospital and found it necessary to undertake the exercise there.
“We have been doing clean-up exercises in other places, but today we chose the Wa Municipal Hospital so that in our little way we can help keep the place tidy.
In our next clean-up exercise, we will go to a community to inculcate the spirit of cleanliness among the residents”, he said.
Pastor Aboungo urged the church members to make environmental cleanliness a daily responsibility rather than limiting sanitation activities to the designated National Sanitation Day.
He said regular communal clean-up exercises would help address environmental conditions that could contribute to the spread of diseases and improve general public health.
Pastor Aboungo called on the Wa Municipal Assemblies to put in place stringent mechanisms and strictly enforce their sanitation by-laws to rid the Municipality of filth.
Mr Joseph Adongo, Administrator of the Wa Municipal Hospital, expressed profound gratitude to the SDA Church for undertaking the clean-up exercise at the hospital.
He said the exercise would go a long way to improve sanitation and environmental hygiene at the facility.
He called on other churches and organisations to emulate the gesture of the SDA Church and undertake similar exercises at the hospital to keep its surroundings clean.
Some caretakers of patients at the hospital expressed worry about the limited number of dustbins at the hospital
“Sometimes when we drink sachet water and other used items, we do not know where to keep them.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Odeng Adade
Reporter: Joseph Agrace Wiyorbie
Email address: [email protected]