Minister gives MMDAs ultimatum to submit cholera control proposals

Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, has called on Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA’s) in the Greater Accra Region to submit proposals on halting cholera the Region this year.

At a meeting in Accra, the Minister also gave the MMDAs a one-week ultimatum to submit the cholera-halting programmes and strategies to the Ministry for review and implementation in their respective areas.

He said the country in 2014 recorded 28,975 cholera cases with 243 deaths of which majority cases were recorded in the Greater Accra Region.

This, he said, led to the institution of the National Sanitation Day (NSD) at the end of 2014.

He said the institution of the NSD would hopefully bring about a change of attitudes by the citizenry towards the indiscriminate dumping of refuse and littering and help revive the spirit of communal labour.

The Minister said the initial impact of the change of attitudes has resulted in the drastic reduction of cholera cases in 2015 to 692 with 15 deaths adding that it was still possible to prevent the outbreak of the disease.

He urged MMDAs to seriously undertake the NSD exercise in their various assemblies to promote environmental and public health in the country.

Alhaji Dauda said every citizen has the responsibility of keeping their environment and the country clean and the best way to keep the country clean is to encourage the participation of the NSD.

The NSD is slated for Saturday March 5, 2016 and is being observed nationwide on every first Saturday of the month.

Source: GNA