THE Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Mr Kwadwo Adjei Darko, has advised Ghanaians to change their behaviour and attitudes towards environmental sanitation.

He said environmental sanitation must be a collective effort of all, and not for the government alone adding that 'we must ensure compliance with sanitation regulations and enforcement of bye-laws to promote a healthy environment'.

The minister gave the advice yesterday when the Netherlands Embassy donated four Nissan pick-ups worth 56,000 Euros to the ministry in Accra on Friday to be distributed among four selected districts in the country.

The beneficiary districts are to be selected from the Brong-Ahafo, Western, Volta and Eastern regions and the regional vehicles are to help carry out effective monitoring of environmental sanitation in the districts.

Mr Darko said since December 2006 the Netherlands Embassy has been supporting the ministry in various ways aimed at strengthening the environmental and sanitation directorate to meet the growing challenges of sanitation in our communities.

The support included the training of environmental health officers at different levels and commended the embassy for its kind gesture. He pleaded that the vehicles will be used for their intended purposes.

'I wish to express our sincere gratitude to the government and people of the Netherlands and hope that this cooperation will continue to grow from strength to strength,' he added

Presenting the vehicles, the Ambassador of Netherlands, Lidi Remmelzwaal, was hopeful that the vehicles will help solve the problems of sanitation in the beneficiary districts if Ghana is to meet the basic sanitation of the Millennium Development Goals.

She observed that in poorer urban areas where town planning is particularly weak and water supply is inadequate, environmental sanitation is poor and conducive for outbreak of diseases.

'Thus the issues of environment sanitation are issues of health, education and social concerns,' she added

The ambassador said 'we expect that government will identify sustainable sources for financing environmental sanitation and its related recurrent expenditure'.

She commended the environmental health and sanitation directorate for working hard towards achieving a national environmental sanitation strategy and action plan to be implemented this year.

Ms Remmelzwaal assured Ghana of her government’s support for the ministry in tackling the country’s environmental sanitation problems.