GHS, GES to become departments of district assemblies
The Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) will cease to operate as services from January 2017 and begin their operations as departments of the district assemblies under the Local Government Service.
Advertisement
The bills related to this new structure are ready to be placed before Parliament.
The Tano South District Chief Executive, Mr Bukari Zakari Anaba, who announced this last Thursday, said a lot of discussions, consultations and cross fertilisation of ideas had gone on behind the scenes, while possible challenges had been raised and addressed.
He was delivering his address at the first ordinary meeting of the second session of the sixth assembly at Bechem.
Mr Anaba explained that the school management committees, the district education oversight committees and the social service sub-committee of education would play a more critical role.
Agriculture
Touching on agriculture, the DCE told the assembly that, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, the district had established a number of demonstration farms.
They include 1.3 hectares of maize, 0.8 hectares of cocoyam, 0.4 hectares of taro, 1.2 hectares of tomatoes and pepper, 0.8 hectares of mango and coconut, 12 hectares of improved rice seed and 25 hectares of improved cassava.
Mr Anaba explained that the local office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) had also provided treatment and vaccination of 39,794 livestock, poultry and pets in the district.
He encouraged farmers in the area to take advantage of the interventions to obtain the technical knowledge available to increase their productivity and income.
Mr Anaba said the government had put in place a programme to raise two million free cocoa seedlings to farmers in the Bechem Cocoa District which include Bechem, Techimantia, Derma, Duayaw Nkwanta, Adrobaa, Yamfo, Subongpang, Atronie and Hwidiem.
Disasters
On disasters in the district, the DCE announced that the area recorded 38 disaster cases during the first quarter of 2016, 27 of which were fire outbreaks and 11 rainstorms.
He said a letter received from the Ghana Meteorological Agency indicated that some parts of the country would experience heavy rainfall this year, which is likely to cause flooding.
Mr Anaba commended the National Disaster Management Organisation(NADMO|) office and the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) in the district for collaborating to organise volunteer training programmes to equip fire volunteers with the necessary skills to prevent and control fires and other disasters in the various communities.