Health official says punishment for offenders not deterrent

Bibiani (W/R) Sept 3, GNA- An environmental health official has appealed to the Ministry of Health to work for the repeal of the Criminal Act of 1960 which deals with sanitation offences to make punishment under the Act deterrent.

Mr Kwasi Owusu-Ansah, Western Regional Environmental Health Officer, said his office and the law courts are handicapped because of the low sentences prescribed under the Act.

He was addressing the mid-year performance review meeting of environmental health officers in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai District. Mr Owusu-Ansah said fines imposed on offenders are a disincentive to environmental health officers because people they take to court often ridicule them.

He appealed to the government to provide logistics and pay the allowances of officers regularly to boost their morale. Mr.J. B. Addae, the Presiding Member of the assembly, called on all district assemblies to enact bye-laws that would make it possible for the prosecution of passengers in moving vehicles who throw garbage onto the streets.

He asked the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to team-up with environmental health officers to educate passengers and the public to avoid throwing garbage into drainage.

In a resolution, the environmental health officers called on the government to, as a matter of urgency, ban the use of polythene bags in shops and markets and the use of the item to bag ice water. They said the use of polythene bags is compounding the sanitation problems in the country.