“Safe water supply and adequate sanitation to protect health are among the basic human rights. Ensuring their availability would contribute immeasurably to health and productivity for development.”— Dr Gro Harlem Bruntland, Director General of WHO.
THE safety of meat on the Ghanaian market, especially those slaughtered locally, has been a source of concern over the years.
A couple of weeks back, I made an infrequent visit to the Bolgatanga slaughter house, along the Bolgatanga–Bawku main road, not to purchase meat but to observe how things were done there.
Shocking would be the best word to describe the scene that greeted my eyes. Butchers slaughtering animals on the bare ground and burning off the fur in bellowing smoke was an unsightly scene.
Apart from the eyesore it creates in the municipality, this way of preparing meat for human consumption, to me, is unhygienic and poses serious health consequences.
Apart from its crowded nature, I realised the facility was located in a very grimy area. Flies abound in the area and meat meant for human consumption is exposed to the flies. Anyone who visits the vicinity is immediately greeted by a nauseating stench.
This undoubtedly poses serious health hazards to people who do business in the area, those who live close by and consumers of the produce. Urgent steps must be taken to address the issue.
Surprisingly, meat sellers and consumers could be seen busily engaged in buying and selling of meat, though from their gesticulations, one could see that they abhor the unsanitary conditions at the place.
I then asked myself if that was the place where all the meat that we consume in Bolgatanga came from. I could only yell, we are in deep trouble!
The Daily Graphic gathered that the butchers relocated to the present site in 1998 after the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly instituted measures to rehabilitate the old market where they once occupied.
However, 10 years down the line, the rehabilitation of the central market including the new slaughter house has been completed, but the butchers are yet to move into their new environment.
Some butchers who did not want to be named, expressed concern about the unsanitary conditions prevailing at the present site but said they simply did not understand why up to date they had not been allowed to operate from the newly rehabilitated structure.
"We once made an attempt to move into the new structure but we were chased away by some of the market women because they were contesting the assembly on the process of allocation of stores in the markets," said one of the butchers.
They contended that although the renovated slaughter house was too small to contain the large number of butchers currently operating at the old site, they would still have loved to operate at the new structure.
They are all aware of the dangers involved in operating in the prevailing unsanitary environment.
According to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Revised Environmental Sanitation Policy, District Assemblies shall ensure that all communities that need slaughtering facilities have access to them, either as public or private facilities. They are to be registered and regularly inspected by the district assembly.
Why then have the butchers not been relocated to the slaughter house that was sponsored by the government and the European Union fifth Micro Finance Projects Programme for all this while, warranting the sale of meat in unsanitary condition to the innocent public? This was the question I posed to the Bolgatanga Municipal Co-ordinating Director, Mr Philibert Kuupol.
In his response, Mr Kuupol said initially the assembly had planned to inaugurate the entire market before allowing the traders to operate in. He, however, stated that there was a misunderstanding over the allocation process and that stalled the process.
Mr Kuupol said the problem had been sorted out and hopefully the market and the meat shop would be opened for business. He could not, however, give the exact date for the relocation of the butchers.
Responding to the concerns by the butchers that the new structure was too small, the Municipal Co-ordinating Director said aside the new meat shop, some adjoining stalls had been allocated to the butchers to serve as meat shop to accommodate all the meat sellers.
Touching on the unsanitary nature of the old slaughter house, Mr Kuupol said the ideal situation was to site the abattoir outside town where the animals could be killed and transported to the meat shop for sale to the general public.
"There is the need for us to organise the place properly because whether we like it or not, we all eat meat from the place; it is, therefore, necessary we keep the place clean," he said.
Mr Kuupol, however, gave the assurance that the assembly would do all in its power to ensure that the new meat shop was opened and the butchers relocated to ensure that the public was served with hygienic meat.
A healthy mind, it is said, is in a healthy body. And a body can be healthy if it lives in a healthy environment.
As stated by the Health Minister, Major Courage Quashigah (retd), at the launch of the Sixth National Food Safety Week in Accra in July, this year, inadequate sanitation leads to eight deaths in the country every hour, topping the list of all causes of mortality.
The minister was quoted as saying that the total number of yearly outpatient cases reported with food-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera and hepatitis, was about 420,000 with annual death rate of not less than 65,000.
Again, Major Quashigah was reported to have said, “Diarrhoea diseases from consumption of raw and rotten vegetables and fruits, meat and fish production and processing, including street foods, are usually closely linked to poor hygiene.”
The sanitation situation at the present slaughter house at Bolgatanga is deteriorating by the day and the fear is that this might lead to increase in sanitation-related diseases among the people.
If Bolgatanga in particular and Ghana in general is to make strides in its efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on sanitation practices, there is the need for the authorities concerned to provide the meat-consuming public a decent meat shop.
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PRESIDENTIAL aspirants of the various political parties contesting the December 7, 2008 general election have been urged to extend their campaign activities to the Bawku Municipality.They have, however, been cautioned to desist from insults and acrimony and rather explain their plans for the country to the electorate in order to win their mandate in spite of the volatile nature of the area.The Paramount Chief of the Bawku Traditional Area, Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, cautioned that his traditional area would not tolerate any politician who would use intemperate language in .JPG)
his campaign activities.Naba Azoka II made the appeal during a courtesy call on him by the newly appointed Upper East Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police, (ACP) Alhaji Hamidu Mahama, at his palace.ACP Mahama, who was recently elevated to the position of Regional Police Commander, was in Bawku to introduce himself to the Bawku Naba.The visit was also to confer with the Bawku Naba on the strategies to adopt to improve on the relative peace prevailing in the area and ensure a smooth electioneering to avoid any violence during the December polls.He was accompanied by the Regional Security Co-ordinator, Mr Ahmed Mumuni; the Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Emmanuel Frank Adufati and other Senior Police Officers.The Bawku Naba called on political parties, who intended to campaign in the area to exhibit tolerance towards their political opponents and focus on issues that would rather unite the people and lead to development in spite of the unpleasant situation recorded over the past nine months.Conflict erupted in Bawku on January 1, this year, and had claimed the lives of several people, while several others also sustained severe gunshot wounds.Lives and property have been lost in the conflict. Bawku is currently under a dawn-to-dusk curfew and security personnel have been deployed to the area to maintain peace.Naba Abugrago Azoka II praised the police and all other security agencies for their hard work and efforts which culminated in the restoration of peace in the area and pledged his commitment to ensuring that permanent peace reigned in the area.ACP Alhaji Mahama commended Bawku Naba and his sub-chiefs for collaborating with the security agencies to control the situation in the area.He, however, called on the traditional rulers to hand over to the police anyone who threatened the peace in the area. He also appealed to the chief to support the police and the Electoral Commission to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the area.The Police Commander urged Bawku Naba to leave an imprint in the sands of times as the Bawku Naba who brought permanent peace to Bawku.The delegation later joined members of the Muslim community in Bawku to observe their Friday prayers.Addressing the congregation in the mosque, ACP Mahama urged Ghanaians, especially the youth in the Zongo community, not to allow politicians to use them to foment trouble for their selfish gains.He advised the youth that the Islamic religion was not associated with violence and, therefore, appealed to them not to involve themselves in hooliganism and other negative behaviour.ACP Alhaji Mahama cautioned the youth that anyone caught causing or to have caused trouble prior to or on the election day, would be treated as an individual criminal and not a member of any political party.Meanwhile, the Regional Police Commander had identified teamwork, high professionalism and discipline as the core values of the police service, and stressed the need for the police personnel to act accordingly.Addressing the first batch of 81 operational personnel, out of 116 officers deployed to Bawku on peacekeeping duties, ACP Mahama urged those on relieving duties to collaborate and respect their superiors to achieve their objectives.He reminded them of the likely challenges that might confront them and urged them to psyche themselves up for the job at hand. He also assured them of the support of the police administration to ensure that their needs were met regularly to boost their morale.
