MMDCES urged to gazette by-laws on Sanitation

Alhaji Abubakari Inusah, the Upper East Regional Coordinating Director (RCD), has admonished Municipal and District Assemblies in the Region to gazette their bye-laws on sanitation and insist on enforcement to clear their jurisdictions of filth.

He said the sanitation situation in the region is outrageous, and that affected the Region’s performance on sanitation at the national level.

Alhaji Abubakar however acknowledged that amid the challenges some of the Assemblies faced, they made some significant improvements in their Open Defecation Free (ODF) drive.

He commended the Assemblies and urged those who are lacking behind to initiate effective and practical measures to minimize open defecation in their respective areas.

Alhaji Inusah gave the advice when he interacted with the staff of the Tempane and Pusiga District Assemblies as part of his familiarization visit to all the 15 Assemblies in the Region.

“Submit your proposed bye-laws to your various Assembly members for their views and inputs, and thereafter, forward those to the Regional Coordinating Council for gazetting.” He tasked.

He told management and staff of the two Assemblies at separate meetings that any Assembly that failed to improve on its open Defecation status would be named and shamed.

Alhaji Abubakar indicated that the Assemblies must create vantage of tourist sites in their jurisdictions to improve on their Internally Generated Funds.

He cited the Gbewa Shrine located in the Pusiga District as a potential tourist attraction site that could rake in revenue for the Assembly, stressing the need for the Assembly to take advantage of the Shrine to improve on revenue mobilization.

Alhaji Inusah hinted that a monitoring team from the RCC would soon move round to the various Assemblies to evaluate their performance in readiness for the external monitoring team to improve on the Regional Performance Ranking at the national level.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu in his address cautioned staff against laziness and absenteeism and said management would not hesitate to take action against staff with lackadaisical attitudes towards work.

He called on the management of the various Assemblies to provide the necessary tools and equipment to enable staff to deliver on their core mandate to change the narrative of the Upper East as a poor region.

Hon. Yakubu as part of the visit inspected a yet-to-be handed-over one-story office complex for the Tempane District Assembly and later commissioned a newly constructed office block for the Pusiga District Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service.