Ho – Monday, May 24, 2021: The Office of the Head of the Local Government Service (OHLGS) has completed the first in a series of training for selected Environmental Health officers in the Service. The training which was held at four (4) zonal centres (Ho, Tamale, Elmina and Ejisu) was to sharpen the prosecutorial skills of Environmental Health officers with the responsibility to prosecute sanitation offenders.
At the opening of the training workshop in Ho, Volta Region for officers from the Oti, Eastern and Volta Regions, the Head of the Local Government Service, Ing. Dr. Nana Ato Arthur touched on the important role of environmental health officers in ensuring good public health management. He urged the officers to collaborate with the environmental protection Agency to bring culprits engage in improper disposal of factory effluents to book as it effects the health of people living in its environs.
He urged MMDAs to institute electoral area level sanitation challenge to make issues of hygiene and environment a daily affair and not a monthly or quarterly one. This in his view will curb the sanitation menace. Dr. Arthur reiterated the Services’ commitment to empower environmental health officers to discharge their roles without any hindrance.
The training which featured technical sessions were facilitated by officers from the Judiciary Service and other experienced environmental health officers. Topics treated included evolution of environmental health practice in Ghana and the Legal and Regulatory Framework on Environmental Health and Sanitation Service delivery in Ghana. Others were conduct of objective premises inspection and ESICOME; the role of environmental health officer in ensuring successful prosecution; prosecutorial mandate in Ghana and environmental health officer as a public prosecutor among a host of others.
In closing the training session, Dr Arthur reiterated the technical nature of Environmental Health Prosecutors and the need for prosecutors to develop keen interest in the task they perform. He commended participants for taking the training seriously and encouraged them to put into practice the knowledge acquired to improve upon their service delivery.
The training in Ho took place concurrently with others at Elmina, Ejisu and Tamale. This is the first of a series of training with the second scheduled to take from May 24th at Ho in the Volta Region