Upper West Fights Cholera

The Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit in the Upper West Region has put in place measures to improve the sanitary condition to help reduce the incidence of cholera and other diseases during the raining season. As part of the measures, the unit is collaborating with the district and municipal assemblies to set aside the last Saturday of every month as clean-up exercise days in the communities. The Upper West is one of the regions most ravaged by cholera. George Arthur, Director at the Unit, said his outfit is working with Ghana National Fire Service to facilitate the exercise. Mr Arthur, who made this known during an interview with Ghana News Agency in Wa, said workers from Zoomlion, a sanitation management organisation, has been assigned to spray public toilets, dispose refuse generated as well as embarking on every day cleaning of the streets and the central markets. He said the unit had organised educational campaigns in the communities and embarked on radio talk shows to raise awareness of cholera and other sanitation-related diseases; and the need for people to keep their environment clean all the time. The environmental officers had also been assigned to wards to help train and educate the youth on good sanitation and to cultivate the habit of maintaining their environment clean. Mr Arthur said the unit had also put measures to eradicate open defecation and illegal dumping of refuse and urged the assemblies to enforce their regulations to help accomplish the objective.