Unemployed Environmental Health Officers and Assistants have announced plans to embark on a demonstration on Monday, December 15, to draw attention to what they describe as years of joblessness and neglect by the state.

In a statement ahead of the protest, the group said the action is aimed at pressuring the government to urgently employ and post trained Environmental Health Officers, Assistants, and graduates of the School of Hygiene, who they say have remained idle despite being fully qualified.

The demonstrators are expected to assemble at Independence Square in Accra before marching through selected ministries and public institutions with oversight responsibility for sanitation, health and local government.

Organisers said the demonstration would be peaceful and well-coordinated, incorporating chants and traditional Jama displays to highlight what they claim is more than five years of delayed postings and wasted professional capacity.

“At every institution we engage, we will firmly but respectfully demand accountability. The country urgently needs sanitation professionals, and government must respond,” the statement noted.

The association stressed that Environmental Health Officers are trained and licensed by the Allied Health Professions Council to protect public health and the environment, yet continue to be excluded even as sanitation challenges worsen across the country.

They further appealed to media houses in print, broadcast and digital spaces to cover the protest, describing it as a legitimate civic action taken in the national interest.

“Sanitation is a matter of national security, and Ghana can no longer afford delays in enforcing sanitation and environmental health regulations,” the statement added.

The group maintained that the protest is not intended to disrupt public order but to underscore the urgent need for effective sanitation enforcement and stronger environmental health safeguards, especially in the face of persistent public health risks.