Govt encouraging use of private places of convenience

Accra, July 25 GNA - Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, on Tuesday said the Ministry had documented 17 types of sanitation technologies for use in the country.

He told Parliament that the 17 systems were compared to each other based on factors such as such ground water, soil and anal cleaning limitations in addition to operating and maintaining the different types of systems.

He said it was found out that the construction of bio-sanitation was very expensive as compared to that of a water closet and KVIP. The Minister was responding to a question on why bio-sanitation or bio-toilets developed in Ghana was not being promoted on a large scale to improve sanitation and human waste management. Mr Asamoah-Boateng said although the use of bio-sanitation was not completely out of the question, its use on a large scale was not economical.

He said the Government was, as a matter of policy, encouraging private developers to incorporate places of convenience into their structures since it was clear that it was a lot more expensive for government to put up public toilets.

Mr Oppey Abbey, NPP-Awutu Senya, later asked the Minister when the Bawjiase market in the Central Region would be rehabilitated. The Minister said the market would be upgraded into a modern market at a cost of 11.2 billion cedis as soon as funds were available. Responding to a similar question on plans for the new market at Twifu Praso, the Minister said since the people had refused to move to the new market, the district assembly in consultation with others in the community would meet and decided on an alternative use for the new market.

He said: "The place could be utilized as a Police station to accommodate both the district and the Twifo Praso stations." 25 July