By: Krobea Asante Tofepa – Ntomentwene
Some opinion leaders, including the overlord of Asamankese, Osabarima Adu Darkoh III, Zongo chief Sariki Bala , Municipal Chief Executive, Honorable George Mensah Akpalu and the youth of Asamankese in the Lower West Akim Municipality of the Eastern region yesterday joined Shirley Naana Osei Ampem, NDC Parliamentary Aspirant in the municipality to observe National sanitation day.
At about 7 a.m. in the early hours of Saturday, the Chief, MCE and the Parliamentary Aspirant, Naana were seen to be strongly engaged in sweeping the principal streets. The Asamankese market and the lorry station were thoroughly cleaned to give it a new look as well as the Anyinasu gutter which has been chocked with debris.
Reacting to and addressing participants of the Saturday exercise initiated by, former minister of local government, Mr. Julius Debrah now Chief of Staff, Mrs. Shirley Naana reiterated that her full participation in the exercise was not based on the fact that, her ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) engineered it, but that the exercise sought to bring sanity unto our surviving environment and also to prevent outbreak of epidemics.
Naana expressed worry over the indiscriminate disposal of waste by the citizenry, and has therefore advised inhabitants of Asamankese and its surrounding environs to consider sanitation as a priority and concern of all, and to avoid throwing waste anyhow.
“ We can save money and avoid frequent visits to our health facilities, only if we are prepared to admit that cholera and diseases like malaria come as a result of poor sanitary practices such as open defecation” she added.
The Aspirant mentioned also that, National Sanitation Day should not be spectacled as a foreign move, and therefore encouraged her constituents and Ghanaians as a whole, to consider it as a replacement to communal labour which our fore fathers adopted to deal with filth.
MCE for the area, Honorable George Mensah Akpalu on his part was happy that Opinion leaders, especially the Chief, Osabarima Adu Darkoh III to have shown leadership qualities by joining the exercise which lasted for about 4 hours.
Shirley Naana, the Parliamentary Aspirant and Mr. George Mensah Akpalu, congratulated Osabarima and the youth for their support for a common vision that was aimed at maintaining sanitation in the area.
However, she cautioned inhabitants to desist from open defecation and indiscriminate disposal of waste to avoid epidemics in the municipality, and pleaded that registered voters vote massively for her and President John Dramani Mahama in the 7th November polls, to attract an uncompromised infrastructural development in the municipality.
Source: ritefmonline.org
