Put Aside Your Differences And Embrace National Sanitation Campaign -Minister Urges

THE Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Lemuna has admonished all the traditional authorities, political parties, religious organizations and other groups in Tamale and for that matter Northern Region to put aside their differences and embrace the National Sanitation Day initiative by ruling government. 

The Minister who joined hundreds of residents including service personnel, staff of government institutions and agencies, traders and other individuals to clean the streets of Tamale on Saturday, emphasised that the exercise could be sustained and inure to the benefits of the people if all the stakeholders got involved and embrace the initiative without any malevolence.

“I want everyone to know that sanitation is important and we have to make it our key word. We need to live in a healthy environment, because health is paramount and diseases do not know colours, do not know status and do not know political affiliation”.

 Alhaji Muniru Lemuna was optimistic that the exercise could reduce avoidable diseases, promote healthy environment and ensure health and productive population and as well reduce the pressure on the health budget, if the people embraced it as a communal labour and come out to clean their surroundings everyday instead of waiting for the end of the month.

Even though publicity did not start early on the exercise across Ghana, it recorded massive turn out in Tamale to the admiration of the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Lemuna, the Mayor of Tamale, Abdul-Rahman Hanan Gundadow and the Paramount Chief of Tamale, Naa Dakpema Alhassan Dawuni who led the campaign in the Metropolis. The residents cleaned up all streets, desilted all gutters and evacuated all heaps of refuse. 

Alhaji Limuna (R) and Tamale Dakpema (L) in smock

All the traders in the Tamale Metropolis locked up their shops as well as commercial drivers to join the clean up exercise. Individuals were encouraged to clean up their home in the early hours of the day before joining the masses. Also visible in the exercise were Zoomlion workers and the Progressive Traders Association of Tamale. 

The nationwide clean up exercise dubbed National Sanitation Day which is scheduled for every first Saturday of every month was initiative by the government of Ghana to deal with deplorable sanitation and the outbreak of cholera which has claimed hundreds of lives in the country in recent times.

The Mayor of Tamale, Abdul-Rahman Hanan Gundadow indicated that the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly as part of measures to sustain the exercise, was leaving no stone unturned in stepping up their education campaign and enforcing the sanitation by-laws of the assembly.

He appealed to the media especially the local radio stations to play their expected roles to ensure the message got to the masses and also changed their behavior towards sanitation. 

The Paramount Chief of Tamale, Naa Dakpema Alhassan Dawuni who was described by the Northern Regional Minister as “the Okyehene of Tamale” because is already championing a sanitation campaign in Tamale, described the president’s initiative as laudable. He pledged his full support for the exercise and appealed to his colleague chiefs in the Northern Region to also join the crusade.

The Director of Waste Management Department of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, Mr. Sampson Akwettey appealed to the government for more sanitation equipment to enhance the campaign.