Sanitation Minister Calls For Attitudinal Change To Promote Good Sanitation

The sector Minister for the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, Hon. Cecilia Abena Dapaah is calling for attitudinal change from the entire citizenry to help promote good sanitation in our homes, communities, and the country at large.

The Ministry was set up in 2017 with the mandate to work towards improving the living standards of Ghanaians through increased access to and use of safe water, promoting sanitation and hygiene practices, as well as sustainable management of water resources.

Since her appointment to head the sector, Hon. Cecilia Dapaah and her staff have been working tirelessly to ensure they dish out their mandate in accordance with President Nana Addo’s dream of making Accra the cleanest city in West Africa at the end of his term in office.

Though a lot has been achieved so far, activities of some people such as failure to keep surroundings clean, littering anyhow, open defecation, and unlawful dumping of refuse are still giving the Ministry a challenge as far as the desired progress is concerned.

At a press conference at the Information Ministry in Accra on Tuesday, December 3, 2019, Hon. Cecilia Abena Dapaah has called on the general public to have an attitudinal change to help in the fight against poor sanitary conditions.

She said, “Attitudinal change is what we require and this call for the urgent need for all of us especially the key stakeholders like you [the media] to constantly educate the public on the right attitudes and behaviors required from all of us at all times to ensure good health in our communities as well as taking good care of our water bodies.

“As noted by His Excellency the president of the republic in his inaugural address, we should be active citizens and not spectators. Indeed it is a shared responsibility of all stakeholders that no one is left behind in our quest to provide good sanitation and water for all”.

Touching on some projects the Ministry has implemented this year to promote sanitation, Hon. Cecilia Dapaah confirmed that the sector has distributed 5,100 litter bins to Municipalities in the capital cities such -Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale, Dambai, Ho, and Cape Coast- to help address public littering.

She further shared that under the sustainable rural, water sanitation projects, 12,972 household toilets have been constructed and 351 out of the 685 targeted communities have attained Open Defecation Free (ODF) status.

Also, through the implementation of the Rural Sanitation Module and Strategy sponsored by UNICEF, over 3,000 communities have been declared open defecation free by constructing 40,348 household toilets to benefit 300,789 people in various parts of the country.