NGO proposes formation of Community Sanitation Committees in Ghana

Sunyani, Feb 9, GNA - The Sustainable Development Focus Limited - Ghana (SUDEF-Ghana), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Sunyani, has made proposals to make the National Sanitation Day exercise more effective and sustainable.

These are formation of Community Sanitation Committees (CSCs) for every electoral area, the need for capacity building of the CSCs and other groups such as the Unit Committees, Assembly Members, School Health Committees, Water and Sanitation Management Teams (WSMTs) in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and other relevant bodies.

Mr. John Baidoo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SUDEF-Ghana) was speaking to the media after the national sanitation day programme on Saturday in Sunyani.

He said provision of support from community volunteers by supplying   tools and other safety materials like personal protective equipment (PPE)as well as provision of technical and financial support from relevant Government Organisations and Agencies, Private Companies, NGOs and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) would stand as one of the success pillars to sustain the all-important national sanitation exercise.

He suggestedthe need for the authorities of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) as well as the government to put in place community-based participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) mechanism to track the work in each community after every month's work.

Mr. Baidoo said the would-be members of the M&E in each community could be privileged to use the Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) methodology and technique to guard them in their work.

The SUDEF CEO said the exercise needed much commitment from everyone and therefore urged Ghanaians to get involved in the exercise.

'The exercise demands high level of voluntarism, commitment and sacrifice by every Ghanaian, because we stand to reap the fruits of improved health and better livelihood from this initiative if we improve upon our performance so far and sustain it', Mr. Baidoo stated.

Participation in the exercise itself was dominated by the Military, Police, Fire Service and Immigration as well as few civilians representing some NGOs in the Sunyani Municipality.

They divided themselves in groups sweeping the streets and cleaning gutters in areas such as Sunyani-Polytechnic (S-POLY) Round-About, in front of National Investment Bank (NIB), Volta River authority (VRA), Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), Sunyani Old Market, COCOBOD and many others.

At 07:30 hours when some soldiers arrived at the main taxi rank (old Sunyani Lorry Park) to sweep and clean gutters, they found taxi drivers engaged in active business with impunity.

But they sparked their vehicles and left when the exercise started.

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