The Church of Pentecost, Hohoe Area has organised an “Environmental Care” campaign to sensitize the citizenry on good sanitation and hygienic practices.
The campaign, which involved religious bodies, corporate organizations and individual groups of professionals was aimed at intensifying education as well as creating awareness and sensitizing the citizenry through clean-up exercises and community durbars.
Apostle Yaw Adjei-Kwarteng, Area Head of the Church of Pentecost, Hohoe, during the durbar said: “People become irresponsible when it comes to handling of creation through activities such as indiscriminate felling of trees, bush burning and littering, which gradually affect the environment”.
The Area Head said the Church would engage government to ensure that culverts in the future were covered.
He said the Church’s expectation on the “Environmental Care” Campaign was that all other religious bodies, stakeholders and teachers would “buy the vision” of ensuring a clean environment and added that young children must also be engaged in the campaign to enable them to exhibit hygienic practices.
The “Environmental Care” Campaign, a five year sanitation plan by the Church, saw representatives from the Ghana Health Service, clergy, security agencies, stakeholders in the education sector and Zoomlion with messages of support and education to the public on the campaign.
Mr. Emmanuel Yawlui, the Hohoe Municipal Environmental Health Officer who represented Mr. Andrews Teddy Ofori, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) said human life and existence on earth depended on the environment, which called for proper care.
He said unsanitary behaviours such as open defecation, littering, channelling waste liquids into culverts as well as building on waterways did not destroyed the environment, hence, making if unsafe for living.
Mr. Yawlui complained of the attitudes of some residents who continued to litter though the Assembly had made efforts to place dustbins at vantage points with the excuse that the bins were too far from their homes and called for attitudinal change to that effect.
The Health Officer urged residents to own dustbins to ensure clean environment as well as own toilet facilities in their homes to tackle the country’s agenda of achieving open defecation free society.
“Every house must have a latrine because the problem we have in Ghana is open defecation with people defecating everywhere, so the Assembly is telling us all especially landlords to make it a point to have toilets facilities in your homes,” Mr Yawli said.
