115 unfit food vendors banned in Cape Coast

One hundred and Fifteen food vendors in the Cape Coast municipality have been banned from selling their wares due to various infectious diseases they have contracted.

The Municipal Environmental Officer, Nana Poku, said 34 of the sellers were found to be suffering from tuberculosis while 81 suffered from typhoid.

He was speaking to the press in Cape Coast on Tuesday after Zoom Lion Company Limited, a sanitation company, had organised a meeting with lorry station managers.

Nana Poku said the sick people were found after various tests by hospitals confirmed their situation and that a monitoring team had been put in place to visit the banned vendors every three days to ensure that they did not violate the ban.

He said they had been asked to treat the sickness, and after confirmation from a hospital that they were well and healthy they would be allowed to sell again.

He noted that it was an offence to flout an order not to sell, due to sick¬ness, and cautioned those disobeying the order to conform.

Nana Poku said his office would continue to be vigilant to ensure that only healthy people sold to the general public.

Nana Poku was worried that sanitation offences sent to court were not given the needed attention, and that the delay in the disposal of the cases was discouraging the sanitation officers from following the cases.

Nana Poku said sanitation was everybody's business and urged all to share in the responsibility of ensuring that their surroundings were clean to ensure a healthy nation.

He also expressed concern about the sanitation in the municipality, saying that the 13 municipal health inspectors were not enough to ensure a clean environment.

He said with the elevation of the municipality to metropolitan status, it was crucial that more inspectors were employed for the efficient management of the environment.

Mrs Rhoda Donkoh, Regional Coordinator of Zoom Lion, said the company's "Education and Sanitation at the Lorry Stations" programme would be launched in Cape Coast on Friday with the distribution of 50 dustbins to the 14 stations in the municipality.

The programme seeks to keep the lorry stations clean for improved health and in preparation for Ghana 2008 in January.

Mrs Donkoh said the lorry stations were the first point of call for all, and urged the station managers to support the programme to ensure its success.

She said the neatest lorry station would be given ¢1 million as prize every two weeks for three months.