POOR SANITATION HINDERS NHIS — DARKO (PAGE 29)

THE Minister for Local Government Rural Development and Environment, Mr Kwadwo Adjei Darko, has hinted that the National Health Insurance Scheme and other critical national programmes intended to increase school attendance had the propensity of grinding to a halt, if sanitation-related issues are not handled with the urgency and importance they deserve.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Agnes Chigabatia, at the fifth national quadrennial congress of the Ghana Environmental Health Officers Association (GEHOA) at Bolgatanga, Mr Adjei Darko emphasised the need for the society to work with the government on maintaining a clean environment, if the total disease burden was to be reduced.
He alluded to the fact that a greater number of the top 10 diseases, which include malaria, typhoid fever, worm infestation and cholera reported at the various health facilities were sanitation-related.
He said this, therefore, called for a change in strategy to the approach in the handling of hygiene and sanitation issues as a nation.
The theme for the congress, which was attended by over 200 participants drawn from all over the country, was “environmental sanitation for dignity, health, poverty reduction and development”.
The minister said poor sanitation, unhygienic conditions and unsafe water claimed the lives of most children under the age of five every year and added that in Ghana, a total of $22 million was spent on malarial treatment alone each year.
He pointed out that without improvement in sanitation, none of the millennium development goals, which the world had committed itself to, would be achieved.
“When the Environmental Health Officer conducts his/her duties judiciously, it is estimated that improved sanitation in our communities could reduce diarrhoea-related cases in young children by more than one-third.
He disclosed that the draft revised national environmental sanitation policy was before Cabinet for consideration, while a national strategy and implementation plan was being developed and expressed the hope that by the close of this year, the documents would have been ready.
The outgoing President of GEHOA, Mr Clement Kaba Bawunia, noted with concern the threat posed by desertification and advocated the need for every Ghanaian to plant at least one tree to combat the phenomenon.
Mr Abednego Chigumba from UNICEF called for resources for the environmental health training institution, if it was to achieve its mandate. He also called on members of the association to place more emphasis on research to come up with issues that would be of interest to the public.
In a solidarity message, the Student Representative Council President for the Accra School of Hygiene, Mr Michael Ewurah, said it was appalling that the three schools of hygiene in the country were not given the necessary attention when it came to solving problems of national concern. This, he said, had reflected on the poor performance of the officers on the field of work.
He expressed the hope that the government, NGOs, opinion leaders, ministers, traditional rulers and individuals at all levels would put more emphasis on preventive health services rendered by environmental health officers and other professionals to the communities in order to save the billions of cedis spent on preventable diseases with little or no success.