Day: October 26, 2023

The Danfa Health Center in the Madina Municipality has urged the government to repair roads in the area to enable the hospital to meet its maternal and child health target. According to the Health Centre, which serves some 19 communities, ante-natal care, deliveries, and post-natal services are declining due to the bad condition of the roads. Dr Francis Amihere, Head, of Danfa Health Center, said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra. ‘When you come to maternity, antenatal cases were appreciating; deliveries too were appreciating… But you know the road too is not good, so it prevents so many people from coming. So, we need the government’s intervention. The road must be built as early as possible. Pregnant women cannot travel on this type of road,’ Dr Amihere said. Aside from pregnant women, Dr Amihere stated that due to bad road conditions, some ambulance services do not respond to the facility’s distress calls, underscoring the need for the government to repair the road as soon as practicable. ‘If you call an ambulance right now, you will hear them say that the road to Danfa is bad. So, this is a major challenge, he told the GNA. Dr. Amihere also mentioned a lack of human resources and equipment as a challenge. He said that while staff work around the clock to ensure that each person who enters the healthcare facility gets medical attention, some patients are left unattended due to a lack of personnel and equipment. He thus urged the government to staff and equip the hospital. Despite the limitations, Dr. Amihere stated that the Centre has worked hard to enhance coverage for some of the childhood killer diseases. He said the number of children immunized against polio and measles had gone up significantly over the years due to the facility’s health workers’ efforts. ‘For child health, our coverage on measles has gone high; polio, our coverage has gone high,’ he said. Dr. Amihere stated that more successes could be recorded if road, staff, and equipment difficulties were rectified. He stated that the goal of the facility was to ensure that residents of Danfa and its surrounding communities, particularly women and children, get the needed healthcare because they are the future of the country.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Kojo Ayittey, a Scientist at the University of Ghana says the top two air pollution sources in Accra and Kumasi are emissions from energy-burning facilities and biomass. Emissions from energy-burning facilities include soot from poorly maintained and old vehicles, generators, and motorcycles, while open burning of waste items, charcoal, and firewood used as cooking fuel at the home and commercial levels produces biomass emissions. Mr Ayittey told the Ghana News Agency that dust from unpaved roads, building sites, and fields constituted the third source of air pollution in the two cities. He stated that these sources of pollution produced Particulate Matter (PM), which is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets of varied sizes and forms. People inhale these Particulate Matter unknowingly, posing major health risks, including the triggering of asthmatic diseases. Mr Ayittey explained that PMs had been classified into sizes and that PM 10 was inhalable particles with diameters of 10 micrometres or less. ‘These particles can get deep into your lungs and some may even get into your bloodstream,’ he said. PM 2.5 was found to be the second category of particles, with diameters of 2.5 micrometres, which are even thinner than a strand of human hair and could cause the most harm to one’s health. According to Mr Ayittey, Environmental Protection Agency research found that air pollution kills 28,000 Ghanaians prematurely each year. A recent World Bank Report put the yearly cost of air pollution in Accra and Kumasi at about US$264 million. The report said about two per cent of the country’s gross domestic product was spent on resolving air pollution issues. Furthermore, according to Ghana Health Service (GHS) figures for the first half of 2023, asthma, a condition mostly induced by poor air quality, is the second most common noncommunicable disease (NCD) recorded. Dr Efua Commeh, GHS’s Acting Programme Manager for Noncommunicable Diseases, stated that the data indicated that more people were becoming unwell with chronic obstructive lung diseases such as asthma. She said that the health burden of air pollution was wreaking havoc on the working class, particularly breadwinners. Dr Commeh noted it was not only a loss at the personal level, but the economy because ‘the more people get sick, the more the economy suffers in terms of productivity.’ ‘Many more people in Accra are at high risk of developing these diseases due to the shrinking green spaces. There is enough evidence of an increasing rate of respiratory disease. The rise is steep especially from 2010 through to today, 2023,’ she said. Mr Emmanuel Appoh, the Managing Consultant for EnviroFin Consultant, asked the public to be vigilant and report anyone engaged in open burning to the police because it was unlawful. ‘Do not sit idle because smoke knows no bounds. Its impact can be diseases such as heart disease and lung cancer. Fighting air pollution is everyone’s civic responsibility,’ he said. Mr Appoh, a former Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, urged companies and prospective car buyers to choose a fuel-efficient model with lower emissions. He urged commercial vehicle owners, particularly those who use diesel cars, to practice eco-driving by installing particulate filters. Mr Appoh stated that drivers should adopt practices such as avoiding overspeeding, switching off car engines while on longer stops, closing windows when driving at faster speeds, and frequently servicing vehicles to keep them ‘eco-fit.’ He urged homeowners and commercial caterers to purchase clean cookstoves to save lives and money for the country. ‘…this story was a collaboration with New Narratives. Funding was provided by the Clean Air Fund. The funder no say in the content of the story…’

Source: Ghana News Agency

Some 634 delegates in the Akan Constituency are expected to cast their votes during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential primaries slated for November 4. The figure includes 10 Council of Elders, one Founding member, 17 Constituency Executives, 36 Electoral Area Co-ordinators and 570 Polling Station Executives. Mr Abdul Sataru Merigah, the Akan NPP Constituency Secretary, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), in an interview at Kadjebi in the Oti Region. He said the Kadjebi-Asato Senior High School (KASEC) had been selected as the venue for the event and advised all delegates to ensure a peaceful process. Mr Merigah said, ‘The election is a family one, so let us stand united after November 4.’ Mr Frank Worlanyo, a delegate told the GNA, that there was a need to rebrand the Party by voting non-Akan personalities to lead the NPP in the Elections 2024. He said this would demystify the notion that the Party is an Akan Party. Mr Eric Hehemekpe, the Freetown Electoral Area Co-ordinator, called for transparency, a free and fair election since it was an internal election. He said this would help keep the Party together, prevent hatred and further breakaway after the election, therefore, twisting the Party’s effort of breaking the eight.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Soil Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-SRI) is training 38 selected youth in the production of bio-fertilizers as part of efforts to bridge the fertilizer needs gap of Ghanaian farmers. Bio-fertilizers are substances that contain living micro-organisms which, when applied to seeds, plant surfaces or soil, colonize the interior of the plant and promote growth. Dr Edward Yeboah, Director, CSIR-SRI, speaking at the opening of a three-day ECOWAS Youth Training on Bio-fertilizer Production and Business Development at Kwadaso near Kumasi, said exploring and utilizing the available knowledge could reduce the unemployment rate in the country. He said agriculture had a huge potential to transform the economy of Ghana, and that was why bio-fertiliser production was necessary to ease fertilizer costs, increase food production and maximize farmers’ profit margins. The training was funded by the African Union Commission through the ECOWAS Commission and supported by the government of Ghana. The training will expose participants to types of bio-fertilizers, uses, concepts, compost production, biochar production technology, marketing of bio-fertilizers as business enterprises, and development of carbon markets for smallholder farmers. Again, beneficiaries will be treating bio-fertilizer in Sawah eco-technology (a technology of planting lowland rice in a properly prepared soil bond to contain water for the planting of rice seedlings). Dr Yeboah indicated that there were other technologies that would address climate change issues confronting farming activities in recent times. He said since the CSIR-SRI had been tasked to produce bio-fertilizers to ensure sustainable food production in Ghana, it would continue to provide the needed backstopping to beneficiaries of the training and jointly transform the economy of Ghana. Dr Fuseini Issaka, a Research Scientist, said participants would be made to form groups to come up with a comprehensive budgeted business plan for submission to ECOWAS. Through this, the youth could be assisted in going into large-scale bio-fertilizer production to meet the fertilizer needs in the country. Dr Issaka said the challenge over the years had been that people produce these fertilizers their own way and could not properly brand the products. The training would, therefore, ensure that the youth would go through proper branding of these fertilizers, marketing and link to potential businesses along the fertilizer value chain and meet the market demands.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A total of 3,257 people have been displaced by a surge in the water levels of the River Volta, Oti and Dakar, which are all tributaries of the Volta Lake. It is estimated that properties worth GHC316,000 have been damaged. Victims affected by the flood are currently staying with friends and relatives in the community. Personal belongings, bedding and valuable items of victims were either damaged or destroyed by the situation. Mr Edward Kwaku Kumah, the Oti Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency, said many of the houses had collapsed and some partially destroyed. There were, however, no casualties or injuries. He said the affected Municipal and Districts were the Krachi East Municipal, Krachi West Municipal, Krachi Nchumuru and Biakoye Districts. He said the Krachi East Municipal and Krachi Nchumuru District recorded 1,426 persons displaced and 693 houses inundated and partially destroyed by the flood while 47 acres of cassava and groundnut farms were submerged. Nkwanta North District NADMO Office also recorded severe flooding events affecting 1,214 persons, 117 acres of farmlands, 163 houses totally or partially damaged and 57 households affected. He gave the records at Biakoye District as 620 persons were displaced and some communities and directly affected. The Regional NADMO Director said the office embarked on a series of public education and awareness creation from the onset and this made the effect less devastating. Mr Kumah assured the affected victims in the four Municipals and Districts that the Director-General of NADMO would respond as soon as possible.

Source: Ghana News Agency