‘Re-introduce public health inspection teams’
Ghana's aim to attain a national goal of providing sustainable water, sanitation and basic hygiene (WASH) services for all by the year 2025 will be a mirage, if drastic measures and programmes are not designed.
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Key among them is the reintroduction of the erstwhile public health inspectors fondly referred to as “nsamansaman,” who, hitherto, ensured that the public and communities observed strict personal and communal hygiene.
They also ensured that the laws on health and sanitation within these communities were observed with defaulters being made to face the full rigours of the law.
The impact of their operations in those days was tremendous, especially at a time when there were inadequate health and sanitation facilities, technology, financial resources as well as social advancement.
A consultant for Communication and Development of the United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF) Ghana, Mr Maurice Ocquaye, expressed the sentiments when he addressed a cross-section of journalists at a day’s training workshop on sanitation at Fumesua, near Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region.
The workshop, which brought together about 20 journalists, was organised by Ghana Water and Sanitation Journalists Network (GWJN) with support from UNICEF and the Japan Government.
Mr Ocquaye was disappointed that despite the health, social, economic and technological advancement of Ghana, the country was trailing abysmally in sanitation because of the removal of the public health inspectors.
He said “increasing open defecation and indiscriminate littering is a source of worry.
“In fact, our practices do not match the advancement of the country,” he stated and warned that “Ghana is sitting on a time bomb and without proactive steps, it is only a matter of time that lives will be lost.”
The National Co-ordinator of GWJN, Mr Peter Serinye, advised the general public to ensure proper hygiene to avoid diseases.
By Joseph Kyei-Boateng & Edmund Smith-Asante/Daily Graphic/Ghana