Assemblies urged to prosecute Sanitation offenders

Mr Las Bayou. Upper West Regional Environmental Health Officer has urged the Municipal and District Assemblies to prosecute people who flout sanitation bye-laws to deter them.

“This problem will continue to stay with us unless the Municipal and District Assemblies begin sending such offenders to court, especially those who do not keep their surroundings clean.”

He said only Jirapa, among the nine Municipal and District Assemblies in the region, had on a few occasion's prosecuted people who infringed on the bye-laws and urged the other Assemblies to also do same.

Mr Bayou who spoke to the Ghana News Agency at Wa on the challenges his out fit faced in the management of waste in the region, said they would in future publish the names of all offenders to serve as a deterrent.

He said people in Wa, the regional capital, even refuse to confine their animals and allow them to roam freely and that when the animals are caught by the authorities impounded and their owners fined, “there was always an outcry.”

He was not happy that after the massive clean up exercise about two months ago, people had gone back to their old ways of dumping refuse indiscriminately.

“The drains have been re-choked with waste because residents were not cooperating with Environmental health officers and Zoomlion to keep the area tidy.”

Mr Bayou commended Zoom Lion, Plan Ghana, the Ministry of Health and the Community Water and Sanitation Agency for supporting efforts to ensure environmental cleanliness in the communities.

GNA