The Head of the Government Service, Dr. Callistus Mahama, met with Heads of the Regional Environmental Health Departments at the Accra City Hotel in Accra on Monday 10th October, 2016 to discuss efforts being made by Government and the Local Government Service to help address the sanitation menace in the country. Also present at the meeting were the Chief Director of the LGSS, Mr. J. M. Dasanah, Directors of LGSS and the Director of Policy for the Environmental Health Department of the Ministry of the Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Naa Demedeme.
Highlights of the meeting included: status report on the newly recruited Environmental Health Officers recently posted to the RCCs; perspectives and expectations on the role of environmental officers; challenges faced by Environmental Health officers in the discharge of their duties; and career development programmes for Environmental Health Officers.
Some challenges discussed comprised the outdated nature of existing sanitation bye-laws and the lack of gazette, lack of dumping sites and inadequate working tools. It came to light that, the Expanded Sanitary Inspection and Compliance Enforcement (ESICOME) document currently in used by Environmental Health Officers will be updated and piloted in the Greater Accra Region for scale up in the rest of the Regions.
Dr. Mahama urged the regional Head to support the concerted efforts of the Service and Government to help address the sanitation menace.