In a swift attempt to honour his pledge on not leaving any stone unturned in tackling the growing sanitation brouhaha in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region, the Chief Executive, Mr Roland Atanga Ayoo, has wooed public and private institutions, including the academia, to support in a routine clean-up exercise in the municipality and its surrounding communities.
He said the fight against the canker could not be done through mere workshops and conferences, but by enforcing it practically on the field, “with people all over the country feeling it, seeing it, and attesting to the fact that something has been done about it, is the way to go”.
The collaboration followed a month-long sanitation drive campaign embarked on by the municipal assembly under the auspices of the MCE.
The first to show the commitment and zeal in helping to curb the menace is the Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU).
Speaking to journalists after a clean-up exercise in Bolgatanga over the weekend, the MCE said the municipality was not only vying to become the cleanest town in Ghana, but was showing its strong commitment to helping the country attain Goal Six of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which focused on ensuring access to clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.
According to him, the sanitation threat in the municipality was a severe one and could be equated to an ‘existential threat’, hence required deliberate and conscious efforts of all stakeholders to stamp it out.
He lauded the Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) for the enthusiasm they exhibited, adding, “I must thank the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Samuel Erasmus Alnaa, who has abandoned his busy schedules and led his lecturers and students to come and support this all-important exercise today”.
The VC for the BTU, Prof. Alnaa, pledged the university’s continued collaboration in ensuring the municipality and its surrounding communities were rid of filth.
He moreover noted that the academia was not only entrusted with the responsibility of conducting studies to identify gaps in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) service delivery and provide recommendations for improvement, but was required to physically partake in cleaning the surroundings.
He indicated the outbreak of diseases like cholera was not a respecter of individuals in higher positions, “so we must endeavour to collaborate with the assembly to keep the town clean. It shouldn’t be a nine-day wonder. Periodically, the assembly, institutions, and individuals must come out to honour this important exercise”.
The Environmental Health Officer for the Bolgatanga Municipality, Evans Bornaa, expressed his profound gratitude to the BTU for the collaboration and asked them to sustain consistency in that regard, as the municipality was working around the clock to prevent any outbreak of communicable diseases amidst the heavy downpours being experienced in the rainy season.
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