Day: May 10, 2024

The Gwira Development Network has expressed its readiness to partner with the Gwira Traditional Council and the Nzema-East Municipal Assembly to spearhead the developmental agenda of Gwiraman.

To this end, the Paramount Chief of the Gwira Traditional Council, Awulae Angama Tu-Agyan II and Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Nzema-East, Mr. Eric Essien have met the leadership of the Network during the Traditional Council meeting at Bamiango in the Western Region to fashion out strategic measures to actualize the tenets of the partnership.

The Communications Director of the Gwiraman Development Network, Mr. Emmanuel Kojo Amoako expressed deep gratitude to the Paramount Chief and the MCE for their collaboration to advance the cause of Gwiraman.

He said Nzema-East lagged in development compared to sister Districts in the Western Region.

Mr. Kojo Amoako said the major preoccupation of the Network would be strategies to deal with environmental problems in the area to forestall the flooding phenomenon which engu
lfed 43 out of 46 communities last year.

He said the Network was waiting for implements and equipment to embark upon a serious drainage system, desilting choked gutters, education on proper disposal of refuse and reminding them of the consequences of the floods.

The association would operationalize its activities and bring the youth of Gwira in the diaspora together to advocate the development of the area.

Mr. Amoako said, ‘As the youth of Gwira, responsibility rests on our shoulders to develop our own community’.

The Paramount Chief of the Gwira Traditional Area, Awulae Angama Tu-Agyan II lauded the initiative of the Network which was in line with that of the Traditional Council.

He expressed profound happiness for the Network to come forward to Nananom and the Assembly on how best they could fashion out policies and programmes together to Fast track development of Gwiraman.

Awulae Angama Tu-Agyan however, condemned some youth groups who were hiding behind WhatsApp platforms to insult him and Nananom o
n the lack of development in the area.

He called on people in the area to halt the indiscriminate dumping of refuse at unauthorized places, adding that the Traditional Council will institute an award scheme to award the neatest community in the area.

The Municipal Chief Executive for Nzema-East, Mr. Eric Essien welcomed the move by the Network and pledged the Assembly’s readiness to partner with the Network to deal with the flooding situation.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Some Assembly Members in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis have expressed worry over the sorry state of some public toilet facilities within their respective areas.

They said the situation had compelled some residents without household toilets to resort to open defecation, which was classified as one of the highest sanitation nuances in the Metropolis. 

They expressed these sentiments when the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) met key stakeholders, to update them on the progress of an ‘Operation Clean your surroundings’ campaign being implemented by the Assembly.

The campaign, which was launched in November last year, is a component of a three-year European Union (EU)-funded Twin-Cities in Sustainable Partnership Project (TCSPP) being implemented by the STMA, Palermo Municipality in Italy and other partners.

It was to ensure enforcement of the Assembly’s environmental sanitation by-laws and encourage citizens to take responsibility for their actions towards a clean environment.

It also sought
to raise awareness of cleanliness, hygiene, waste management, and environmental preservation through media campaigns and the deployment of a task force to ensure residents complied with sanitation by-laws.

As part of the campaign’s implementation modalities, a task force undertakes unannounced visits to households, eateries, hospitality facilities, markets, and transport terminals among other places, to inspect the state of sanitation and hygiene within these areas.

The task force, through its unannounced visits and facilities inspection, had arrested and fined 10 persons GHC400 each for openly defecating at New Takoradi, Takoradi, Bakano, Bakaekyir, and Enam Ase communities. 

However, in responding to the issue, the Assembly Members noted that some public toilet facilities were in dilapidated states and made it inconvenient for residents to use.

Madam Ama Kareen, the Assembly Member for Harbour and Railways Electoral Area, appealed to the authorities to take steps to rehabilitate deplorable public facili
ties to help eradicate the open defecation menace within the Metropolis. 

Meanwhile, Mr John Laste, the STMA Public Relations Officer (PRO), who updated participants on the state of the campaign, said the initiative had brought improvements in the general sanitary condition within the Metropolis. 

He said most of the residents had shown a great understanding of sanitation issues, and thus were helping to address the ill practices on environmental sanitation within the Metropolis.

‘In fact, through the campaign, open defecation, especially along the coastal areas is reducing because some communities where we used to arrest people for open defecation have now made improvements when our task force visited those areas,’ he stated. 

Mr Laste, also the Communication and Visibility Officer for TCSPP, acknowledged that despite the improvements, open defecation was still a challenge ‘because the feedback we are getting from the people is that most of the public toilet facilities are not in good shape in terms of m
anagement.’

He said the Assembly would undertake a special exercise to deal with operators of such facilities to keep their environment clean and hygienic to ensure an end to open defecation. 

Source: Ghana News Agency