Demand permits before burial – Births and Deaths Registry directs cemeteries  

The Births and Deaths Registry in the Central Region has entreated cemeteries in the region to regularise their operations and directed them to demand burial permits before burial.

The Registry observed that many families failed to register the deaths of their loved ones, and the situation was compounded by the activities of unregulated and illegal cemeteries which were only after money.

The insistence on the documentation was to compel families to do the needful, which was legally required, to enable the Registry to capture the cause of death, particularly.

Mr Samuel Kwaku Tawiah, the Regional Registrar, explained that death registration was crucial in establishing new trends of the causes of deaths to inform policy and timely action.

“For instance, if there is a particular food or disease that is killing people, we will be able to provide the data, and the relevant institutions will come in.

“In the same way, if we have a community where galamsey or motor accident is killing a lot of people, then we need to come in and inform the appropriate institutions that will take it on.

“But if we don't report what caused the death of the people, it will be disastrous because without knowing what killed the person, a whole family could be wiped out,” he told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview.

Mr Tawiah said death registration and burial permits were legal requirements which took less than 30 minutes to secure and entreated families to get them even if the deceased was being buried on the same day they died.

“If you don't register and the person who died has some property to share, what will be the proof of death which is the legal basis needed to share the inheritance?” he queried.

He also expressed concern that many of the cemeteries in the region were not regularised by law or the assemblies but were under the management of Nananom or private institutions.

He, therefore, called for the collaboration of all stakeholders including Nananom, mortuaries, hospitals, the police, and cemeteries to ensure deaths were properly documented.

He also called for the enhancement of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act to strengthen the role of the Registry in collecting data for better and properly structured economic planning.

GNA