Play your respective roles in the fight against insanitary practices - President

President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo has urged Ghanaians to play their respective roles in the fight against insanitary practices, especially that of liquid waste management.

In a keynote address delivered on his behalf by Professor George Gyan-Baffour, the Minister of Planning at the ‘The Sanitation Challenge for Ghana Awards’, the President urged the public to refrain from littering, indiscriminate disposal of waste and open defecation.

The Challenge is UKAID funded project implemented by IMC worldwide, IRC Ghana and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to create competition among all the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and Private Partners to design and implement innovative strategies to solve liquid waste problems in the Country.

He said the government was committed to prioritizing and improving delivery of liquid waste management services as demonstrated by the creation of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources.

For the first time in the history of Ghana, he said, the Ministry of Finance, through the fisical decentralisation unit, had created guidelines and budget line for liquid waste management within the municipalities, adding that, the guidelines and budget line formerly focused only on solid waste management.

The President said, he was reliably informed that, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources had successfully rolled out the Gama Sanitation and Water Project, which had provided 250,000 households with improved sanitation, served potable water to 64,000 people in low income urban areas and constructed 406 school toilet blocks serving 163 school pupils.

He said another sanitation achievement was the construction of the Box coverts along the Kaneshie section to the Mallam Junction, which had reduced the perennial flood since time in memorial.

He noted that, the Ministry had developed an integrated sanitation method plan for the Greater Accra Metropolitan area, which would serve as a blue print to guide environmental sanitation development in the country.

He said comprehensive digital monitoring platforms had also been created as a database to capture and monitor sanitation improvement in all assemblies.

“There is also the Greater Accra Sustainable Sanitation and Livelihoods Improvement Project which was ongoing at the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources and focused solely on liquid waste management; to construct and connect 500 houses to the existence sewage system and also construct 7,000 Household toilet system in low income urban communities.’

He said it was going to also train 1,000 artisans and entrepreneurs in the wash sector to better deliver sanitation services, which would create jobs. He urged all MMDAs, together with their private partners, to use their advocacy platforms to push the agenda.