Global Communities offer laudable PM

Accra, Aug. 16, GNA - Augustine Nii Amua Nai, Presiding Member (PM) of the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly (LaDMA), has asked residents to embrace the Global Communities (GC) offer to pay 40 per cent of the cost of constructing toilet facility in their homes.

Nii Nai gave the advice in an interview with the Ghana News Agency after a massive clean-up exercise at La in the Greater Accra Region, which was sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Global Communities an NGO.

The NGO is implementing the Water, Access, Sanitation and Hygiene for Urban Poor (WASHUP) project and extension of portable water to households.

He said the Assembly would also embark on an operation to impress upon every house to have a toilet to prevent the recurrence of the cholera outbreak, which had infected over 700 people within the La community.

Nii Nai said: 'We are confronted with sanitation problems because a large section of the residents lacked the sense of cleanliness,' adding that: 'due to that, the problems were compounded daily through open and indiscriminate defecating, littering of streets, gutters and water bodies, leading to environmental pollution.'

The PM said people need to adopt a positive character towards sanitation to save the Assembly from spending so much money to control the collection of refuse, saying: 'there is a limit to the efforts of the authorities, but the biggest challenge is rested on the people themselves.'

He urged every household in La to accept the offer given by the Global Communities to pay 40 per cent (GH¢920) for the construction of the toilet facility.

Mr George Amoasah, Senior Environmental, Safety and Compliance Officer of Global Communities told the GNA that, it was a USAID directive to ensure a massive clean-up in La, as part of the Water, Access, Sanitation and Hygiene for Urban Poor (WASHUP) project and extension of portable water to households.

'In all cases Global Communities will pay 40 per cent as part of the cost that would be incurred by the landlords to construct toilet facility in their homes,' he stressed.

Mr Amoasah advised the people of La to take advantage of the offer.

Miss Salomey Ankama, Chairperson of Hope For Future Generations, also an NGO into sanitation, which took part in the clean-up exercise, educated the people on some of the causes of their health problems and how to take preventive measure.

She expressed gratitude to Global Communities and the USAID and promised to intensify the campaign on the maintenance of high standards of environmental hygiene and sanitation.

GNA