Daasebre Calls for Stakeholders to Intensify Sanitation Education on Covid-19

The Paramount Chief of New Juaben Traditional Area, Chancellor of All Nations University and former Government Statistician, Daasebre Prof. (Emeritus) Oti Boateng, has called on root-based institutions, Traditional Rulers, the District Assemblies, Sanitation Service Providers, faith-based organizations, Ministries, Department and all Government Agencies, to immediately role up health education on sanitation, hygiene and Covid-19 safety protocols to ensure strict compliance.

Daasebre made this call at the Yiadom-Hwedie Palace in Koforidua, the Eastern regional capital when a team made up of Journalists, and ZOOMLION called on him at his palace.

The latest call by the former President of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs comes at the period African Center for Health Policy, Research and Analysis are cautioning the public to strictly adhere to Covid-19 safety protocols to escape another wave of a spike in cases.

Speaking at ZOOMLION/Journalists Stakeholders Dialogue on Sanitation, at the Ghana Library Authority in Koforidua on July 16, 2021, “With the appropriate community involvement, the long-term solution for the control of these diseases lies in economic development and universal access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

Daasebre Oti Boateng opined, that such interventions also prevent a wide range of other water-borne sicknesses, and contributing to achieving MLC goals related to poverty, malnutrition, and education”.

The New Juaben Paramount Chief, Daasebre Oti Boateng noted, that “the above-mentioned diseases Outtermost view and the disastrous implications of the coronavirus pandemic calls for the initiation of coordinated efforts by all stakeholders- which includes government, root-based institutions, Traditional Leaders, the District Assemblies, Sanitation Service Providers, faith-based organizations and others to mount serious periodic health education programs on sanitation and general hygienic protocols.

Daasebre reiterated that such education should focus on all households' best hygienic practices, eliminating all stagnant waters in and around the house and workplaces, observing the best ways of dumping refuse, dislodging choked drains, and possibly embarking on fumigation in all communities.

He said this preventive intervention will have an enormous impact on the sustainable development of the communities and the country as a whole”.

The Omanhene of New Juaben lamented, “We must adopt practical programs by continuing education that establish a clear connection between cleanliness and health, expressing that healthy environment and a peaceful and creative mind.

"We should enable people to see the immediate and long-term positive consequences of maintaining clean bodies, clean homes, clean shops, clean offices, clean places of worship, clean schools, clean environments, everywhere they may find themselves.

Daasebre narrated, " When people’s perceptions change about dirt, their motivations and practices will also change accordingly”.

Moreover, the overlord of New Juaben Traditional Area believes that ‘Operation Clean Communities’, a health and sanitation intervention, will enhance the government’s efforts to prevent the spread of  Covid-19 pandemic infections.

Adding that the traditional council is “Committed to keeping its communities clean and free from diseases, the New Juaben Traditional Council launched the “Operation Clean Communities” on 11th March 2021 to complement the government’s effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases in the Traditional Area”.

William Ofori Akwaboa, Eastern Regional Correspondent