The South Dayi District Assembly, in collaboration with the office of the Member of Parliament, has launched a sanitation drive targeted at promoting hygienic practices and ensuring healthy living.

The initiative aims at curbing outbreaks of communicable diseases, especially in rural communities where residents rely on water from rivers and other unhygienic sources.

Dzemeni is one of the river-bound communities in the South Dayi District, where residents engage in poor sanitation practices, including the dumping of refuse and engaging in open defecation along the riverbank. 

This has led to environmental and health challenges, including outbreaks of communicable diseases as the residents survive on water from the river. 

This informed the assembly to focus on cleaning the riverbank in Dzemeni when it launched the sanitation drive, under the leadership of the District Chief Executive, Courage Kwame Kokroko.

Mr. Kokroko indicated that the clean-up exercise was imperative for learning how the riverbank had been converted into a refuse dump and toilet by the residents.

He said that the presence of environmental health and sanitation personnel would be increased at various locations to curb poor sanitation.

Mr. Kokroko added that the assembly would commence strict enforcement of sanitation laws to prevent unhygienic practices.

“Also, we will empower our Environmental Health Unit to ensure that people don’t carry refuse from their homes to the riverbank. We have a point where they are supposed to dump their refuse, and Zoomlion comes to pick it up frequently. So, we just have to enforce the law. When you flout the law, it will deal with you," he stressed. 

The Volta Regional Environmental Health Officer, Stella Kumedzro, lauded the initiative and entreated the authorities to sustain it to ensure a healthy environment. 

“I want to task the women to always hold on to the broom; we should learn to sweep, we should learn to clean, and we cannot do it without our men. If we have a clean environment, there will be fewer communicable diseases," she called out. 

The South Dayi District Environmental Sanitation Officer, Matilda Anyidoho, expressed her outfit’s commitment to the initiative aiming to curb outbreaks of communicable diseases. 

“This is the source of water the community depends on, and it is filthy. And domestic animals also feed on the water, which brings about diseases. So, as we are doing this, we will put in measures to prevent the animals from having contact with the water as we are using it for domestic chores," she said.