By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, Sept 26, GNA – The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR) has trained 40 Environmental Health Officers to successfully prosecute sanitation cases in court.
The move is in line with the Ministry’s strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which seeks to ensure access to water and sanitation for all.
The participants were drawn from the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Northern, North East and Savannah Regions.
They were taken through topics, including the Jurisdiction of the Courts, Code of Ethics of Environmental Health Prosecutors, Summary Trial of Cases in Court, Drafting of Summons and Charge Sheets, Witnesses and Abduction of Evidence, Closing Address and Judgment, Case Briefs, Drafting of Charge Sheets and Witness Statements.
Mr Sampson Akwettey, the Acting Director of Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate, MSWR, at the opening of the two-day training workshop, said achieving the SDG (six) required renewed strategies, including the prosecution of recalcitrant environmental sanitation offenders, hence the training.
The training formed part of the capacity building activities of the GAMA Sanitation and Water project of the MSWR, which is funded by the World Bank.
The participants would have the opportunity to participate in a moot court session at the District Court in Tamale to experience a practical prosecution session.
Whilst the country had made some progress in ensuring environmental sanitation, challenges such as interference in the work of Environmental Health Officers, lack of by-laws, non-gazetted by-laws, recalcitrant sanitation offenders amongst others, continued to impede progress in the sector.
Mr Akwettey said the Ministry had embarked on sensitisation exercises to educate the citizenry on environmental sanitation and would also intensify prosecution as a behavioural change strategy towards improved environmental sanitation in the country.
He reminded participants of their role in ensuring environmental sanitation within their jurisdictions and encouraged them to follow through with prosecutions they initiated in their Assemblies to win the confidence of the judiciary to support them in their prosecution endeavours.
He announced that the Ministry would be embarking on a national clean-up exercise on September 30, in collaboration with the MMDAs across the country as part of efforts to increase sanitation consciousness among the population.
Mr Sulemana Yakubu, the Northern Regional Environmental Health Officer, emphasised the need for participants to play their roles diligently to bring about the needed change in the communities with regard to environmental sanitation.
GNA