Make cleanliness priority — Daily Graphic Editor appeals to Ghanaians
The Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Kobby Asmah, has appealed to Ghanaians to make sanitation and cleanliness a priority in their homes and the environment.
That, he explained, would help address the poor sanitation conditions in the communities across the country.
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The editor made the appeal at the Eastern Regional edition of the Graphic-Zoomlion Stakeholder Dialogue in Koforidua, last Friday.
The event was attended by dignitaries from institutions such as the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly, the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua, the Office of the Eastern Regional Chief Imam, some high-level staff of the Graphic Communications Group Limited and Zoomlion, a waste management company, religious bodies as well as other relevant stakeholders.
The Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, Daasebre Professor (Emeritus) Oti Boateng, chaired the function.
Sanitation every day
Mr Asmah said making clean-up exercises an everyday affair would help keep the communities, homes, streets, and market places very clean and address choked gutters that was one of the main causes of flooding in the country every year.
The editor stated that the GCGL, as a pacesetter in the media space, was determined to sustain the sanitation awareness campaign which would help make Ghana the clean country everybody was yearning for.
The editor added that the declaration of the year as "Year of Sanitation" came with a mission of focusing on efforts to whip the citizenry up to adhere to good sanitation practices that will eliminate filth in various communities.
Mr Asmah said the objective of the exercise was to complement the national sanitation campaign and play a role in cleaning surroundings.
Appeal
The editor lamented the challenge facing workers in Tema House, a building which housed the Eastern Regional offices of GCGL, New Times Corporation, and National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) due to the inconveniences created by the mini market at their frontage.
He appealed to the New Juaben South Municipal Assembly to take serious action to make sure traders, itinerant preachers and, more especially, tricycles popularly known as "Pragya", that were also contributing to the chaotic scenes at the central business districts, were cleared from the office vicinities.
Presentation and appreciation
Mr Asmah expressed gratitude to the Omanhene of New Juaben, Daasebre Professor (Emeritus) Oti Boateng, for his support and fight for sanitation improvement in the country and presented GCGL's latest publication, the Ghana Year Book, to him.
He lauded Daasebre for launching a sanitation campaign earlier this year and developing the internationally recognised Root-based Development Model to solve challenges at the community level.
Mr Asmah encouraged the Omanhene to keep fighting for sanitation and make his traditional area an example for all.
Commitment
Addressing the stakeholders and participants in the dialogue, the Finance Director of GCGL, Mr Samuel Essel, who represented the Managing Director of the GCGL, said GCGL was committed to spearheading the sanitation change across the country as well as other developmental initiatives.
"GCGL is consistently committed in duty, among others, to support developmental initiatives, advocacy and behavioural change campaigns, cause related interventions, human interest activities, and support brands to use our services as connection platforms to engage various target segments of public growth,” he said.
Mr Essel explained that the previous sanitation stakeholder dialogues held in the Ashanti and Volta regions touched on critical decisions including "prevention of indiscriminate littering, the need for enforcement of sanitation bye-laws and the Public Health Act" to improve the sanitation situation in all parts of the country.
Mr Essel said consistent education would be needed to combat sanitation in the country, and make Ghana the cleanest in Africa.
The finance director also urged Ghanaians to protect the environment as custodians of the land as "there cannot be anything better than a clean environment which impacts positively on public health and national productivity".
Collaboration
A Senior Communications Officer of Zoomlion Ghana, Mr Adams Mohammed Mahama, also called on Ghanaians to take sanitation as a personal task required of them as patriotic citizens.
He said sanitation challenges had led topical national discussions since independence, but the country was still lagging behind due to inadequate management of sanitation challenges in the communities.