Cape Coast runs out of treated mosquito nets
Out of a total of 65,129 people who registered in the Cape Coast Metropolis for the free long lasting treated mosquito nets (LLITNS) hanging exercise 53,500 have so far had their nets hanged for them.
The remaining 13,629 are yet to receive their nets because the regional Health directorate has run out of supply and was expecting more consignments before the end of the year.
Mr Benjamin Amoako, the Disease Control Officer of the Metro Health Directorate, said this when he responded to concerns raised about the distributions of the nets at the sixth session of the Cape Coast Metropolitan assembly on Thursday in Cape Coast.
He described the distribution and hanging of the nets so far as successful stressing that it had achieved 99.8 percent success and that the 2 percent remaining was due to the shortage of the nets and said as soon as more nets were supplied they would be able to make-up the 2 percent.
Mr Amoako said despite the fact that the exercise was a success it suffered a number of challenges stressing that in some cases the volunteers who were mandated to hang the nets found it very difficult to have access to the rooms of the clients.
He said in some cases people who failed to register were now rushing on the volunteers to collect the nets when they realized that the nets distribution was a reality and was for free, this he noted created a lot of problems for the volunteers in some of the communities.
The disease control officer said initially some communities showed good will to the volunteers by giving them a token of GH ¢ 1.00 but some of the volunteers rather turned this gesture into an obligation demanding that each beneficiary should pay the said amount before their nets were hanged, this he noted was a great set back to the exercise and cautioned the volunteers to stop the practice.
In a another development the assembly members also expressed concern about the way most of the school lands in the metropolis were being encroached upon by private developers and called for the implementation of the assembly’s bye-law to help address the situation.
They were also unhappy about the abysmal performance of pupils in this year’s BECE and attributed the situation to lack of monitoring and supervision by school monitoring teams and circuit supervisors coupled with the large number of teachers who were concentrating on upgrading themselves at the university to the detriment of their classroom work.
The members also lamented about the way some schools in the metropolis were being turned into churches whiles others used as toilets and places for “wee” smoking and stressed that the necessary measures should be put in place to address the problem.
Source: GNA