News:
March 18, 2021
Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah has said she looks forward to Ghana being first in the West African sub-region, to have a waste energy plant in the wake of government introducing levy in the 2021 budget to comprehensively address sanitation and pollution problems of the country.
Contributing to the budget debate on the floor of the House on Thursday, March 18, 2021, the Minister told the House the introduction of the levy would help address the management of land fill facilities and provide state of the act waste treatment facilities.
According to her Accra generates five thousand tons of waste in a day while Kumasi produces four thousand tons, and in the year seven point five million tons of wastes are generated. “What are we going to do with these waste that is why it is so prudent of government to introduce a levy?”
Again, in addressing open defecation, she noted that if she had her way and there was funds, the nation should build one million toilets as she is aware Members of Parliament help their constituents in constructing house hold toilets.
“Mr. Speaker sanitation gives us dignity, once and for all we should eliminate open defecation and I have problem with people who get worried with the building of toilets, we need toilets for our homes for the vulnerable groups in our societies”.
Despite few hecklings, she still made her point that evaluation of waste should be properly done in a hygienic manner, as waste should be treated for other uses.
And pointed out that the coming in of the sanitation and pollution levy would help address the huge refuse in our towns and villages.
On water, Cecilia Abena Dapaah placed on record that because of the empathy of the government during the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic free water was given out which cost government one billion Ghana cedis and the policy is still in place up to June this year.
The free water policy, she noted, has deepened the country’s quest for improved hygiene, and to the extent that the country has not recorded incidents of cholera outbreaks is a positive news. Again government has put in place a lot of clean water projects in Wenchi, Tamale, Yendi, Damongo, Keta and Upper East as well as other places to increase access to clean water”.
Madam Dapaah urged members of the House to approve government’s policy budget as work would be done to ensure sanitation and pollution issues in the country are addressed.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com