THE second runner-up of the Ghana’s Most Beautiful pageant, Ms Mavis Enyiram Dotse, has stressed the need for the institution of proper sanitary facilities in society to improve hygiene and environmental sanitation at homes, schools, communities and offices.
This, she noted, would help to curb the frequent outbreak of diseases such as malaria, cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid fever, which are major causes of most of the reported cases at health facilities.
At the celebration of the International Year of Sanitation at Koforidua, Ms Dotse said “the provision of proper sanitary facilities, such as hygienic toilets, can reduce the transmission of the diseases that cause great human suffering especially to women and children”.
The event was used to showcase the various toilet facilities that could be made with the use of locally manufactured materials.
“Investment in social sectors like education, water, health and tourism are imperilled by poor sanitation, which is a major cause of poverty, hunger, poor education, among others,” Ms Dotse stated.
According to her, most of the reported cases of diseases at the outpatients department of various health facilities across the country were filth-related, a situation which had been a major drain on the country’s scarce resources.
Such unfortunate situation, triggered by unclean surroundings and inadequate access to proper sanitary facilities, had also severely undermined the ability of the people, particularly women, to undertake profitable economic ventures to improve their lot.
“People, especially children and women, who lack access to proper toilets facilities at homes spend a great deal of productive hours each day queuing up for public toilets or seeking unsuitable places to ease themselves,” she stated.
“It therefore behoves property owners and the government to ensure that proper sanitary facilities are provided at homes, school and offices to make life worth living for the people,” she added.
For her part, the National Co-ordinator of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, Mrs Theodora Adomako-Adjei, stated that poor sanitation had over the years become a threat to public health and therefore called for greater investment in proper sanitary facilities to enhance the health status of the people.
“Sanitation is not about diseases and hygiene but relates to dignity, health and development which are necessary for economic progress of the country and its people,” she stated.
The Eastern Regional Health Promotion Officer, Mr Bechesani Demuyakor, who chaired the function, called on residents of the region to keep their surroundings clean to enhance environmental sanitation in the area.
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