A lecturer at the Department of Civil Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, has suggested to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to provide motorcade for waste collection vehicles conveying waste materials to the dumping sites. This, according to Professor Mrs. Esi Awuah, would facilitate the movement of the waste trucks to avoid the public nuisance they cause, especially in a traffic jam. “My suggestion may sound funny, but I am telling you the truth. We often see these trucks stuck in traffic as they convey wastes in all forms to the dumping sites to discharge. “The more they delay, the more our residential areas and some places suffer pungent smell which emanates from our septic tanks and piled-up garbage in the containers,” she lamented. Prof. Awuah made the suggestion at the launch of the National Behaviour Communication Strategy for the urban water, sanitation and hygiene sub-sector in Accra on Wednesday. Launching the programme, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development said in an address read on his behalf by his deputy Mr. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, that available statistics prove that only 18 per cent of the urban population had access to improved latrines, 50 per cent used shared latrines, seven per cent practiced open defecation whilst the rest used other unsafe sanitation facilities. “As a country our performance in terms of sanitation indicators has not been good and, therefore, requires that we do something dramatic to reverse the poor sanitation conditions we find ourselves in,” Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo stated. He said that the majority of Ghanaians had not cultivated the habit of washing their hands with soap before eating after using a latrine or touching a baby's stool and stressed the need for people to practice hygiene. He said diarrhoea kills more children than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined. “As a country we need to make progress at a faster rate in redressing the mindset of our citizens in the way they respond to the environment and their personal hygiene. “We cannot dump refuse carelessly with the expectation that our city authorities will attend to them; as a people we should move away, from that, else the ministry will enforce its bye-laws if that will be a way out of the current situation we find ourselves,” he stated. Mr. Ofosu Ampofo commended CHF International, an NGO, for providing invaluable services in the urban sanitation sub-sector which posed a major challenge to the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.