The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR) has presented 370 dustbins to the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) for onward distribution to media organisations to help improve cleanliness.
Valued at about GH¢210,000, each media house in Accra is expected to receive two of the bins with each region taking 20.
At a handover ceremony in Accra yesterday, Cecilia Dapaah, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, said the donation was in support of efforts to realise the President’s vision of making Ghana the cleanest country in Africa.
She stated that due to the public education undertaken by her Ministry in partnership with the GJA, sanitation had improved in Accra especially and had drawn attention to the need for the people to keep their surroundings clean at all times.
“Sanitation is not dirt in the gutters but keeping ourselves, surroundings and place of work very tidy at all times and educating others to do same and the media has shown the way, especially during the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease,“ she added.
According to the Minister, the government has built 122,000 household toilets in the country so far to curb open defaecation.
This, she said, had contributed significantly to the country not recording cholera and dysentery outbreaks and other related respiratory diseases since 2017.
Receiving the items, Mr Affail Monney, President of GJA, thanked the Minister for supporting media houses with bins as a means of championing the agenda of tackling poor sanitation in the country.
“As journalists, we have it as a moral responsibility to highlight and champion social challenges, including sanitation, to cause change in societal behaviour,” he said.
In a related development, the ministry would provide 50 dustbins to Presbyterian Boys Senior High School, Legon, while Adisadel College and Opoku Ware Senior High School would receive 40 each to help them improve sanitation on their campuses.
BY VICTOR A. BUXTON
