Attach Seriousness To Personal, Communal Hygiene–Minister Implores Residents

Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini

The Deputy Northern Regional Minister Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini has implored residents and citizens of the Northern Region to attach seriousness to personal and communal hygiene since it is embarrassing for an outsider to draw their attention to their untidy surroundings.

According to Alhaji Fuseini, there is serious sanitation problem in parts of the region and said it is because residents and citizens have persistently failed to join efforts to engage in communal labour, a practice which could have enable them to deal with petty development challenges such as sanitation. 

The Deputy Regional Minister who is also the Legislator for the Sagnarigu Constituency made this call when he and the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Sagnarigu Alhassan Mohammed Sorogudoo jointly launched the President’s National Cleanup Campaign Exercise at Gumani, a suburb of the district.  

The cleanup exercise according to the DCE for Sagnarigu is aimed at educating the people of his district about the dangers associated with living in insanitary conditions and the benefits they can also derive from living in a clean environment.

He called on the people to join hands with officials of the Sagnarigu District Assembly to roll out a successful campaign since parts of the district is not tidy and therefore pose danger to the  health of residents.

Mr. Sorogudoo told Savannahnews, that aside public education on the dangers pose by insanitary conditions in the district, there will also be periodic cleanup exercises to the town and its surroundings off filth.

The Launch of the event also coincided with the 69^th anniversary celebration of the United Nations which was observed simultaneously across the globe at all UN regional and country offices.

UN Day marks the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. With the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United Nations officially came into being. 

24 October has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948. In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly recommended that the day be observed by Member States as a public holiday.

Alhaji Fuseini also decried the negative accolade of the region as a bastion of conflict, noting that, “while we continue to fight, we dissipate our resources and derail development in our communities”.

He urged the people of Sagnarigu and Northern Region as a whole to espouse virtues that promote peaceful coexistence so that investors will be attracted to the area to enable government deal with the unemployment situation among the youth.

Meanwhile Mr. Abebe Hankore, Chair of the UN Zonal Office in Tamale who led staff of the organisation in a cleanup exercise in Gumani to mark the 69^th UN Day celebration, said every year an estimated 3, 040 Ghanaian women die while giving birth.

Addressing maternal mortality, he said, has been particularly challenging for Ghana and most developing countries, adding that, the government with support from the UN has put in place an MDG 5 acceleration Framework to help curb the problem.