Tuesday, 18th February, 2025
Hon Mavis Kuukua Bissue
Ahanta West
Mr Speaker, my Statement is addressing sanitation issues in Ghana and in my constituency. Mr Speaker, I am grateful for this opportunity to address this august House on a matter of utmost national significance.
Sanitation issues, homelessness, and the proliferation of slums remain critical challenges undermining the health, dignity, and economic potential of our citizens, particularly the youth. It is essential that we adopt a comprehensive approach to tackling these issues, utilising existing laws, formulating new ones, and engaging innovative strategies to develop sustainable solutions, while leveraging on same to create meaningful employment opportunities for our youth.
Mr Speaker, the state of sanitation in Ghana continues to be a source of grave concern. According to the 2021 population and housing census by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), only 51.4 per cent of urban households have their solid waste collected, leaving 48.6 per cent without access to such services. This lack of access often leads to improper waste disposal methods.
Additionally, 65.9 per cent of urban households have access to household toilet facilities, which means 34.1 per cent are deprived of this essential service. It is worthy of note that approximately, 17.22 per cent of urban dwellers practise open defecation. In fact, a more recent survey by the Ghana Statistical Service of February 2024 puts the percentage at 25 per cent of households in Ghana practising open defecation. This situation is even dire in rural areas, where the lack of provision of safe sanitation facilities is more pronounced.
In 2017, the Government launched a national sanitation campaign through the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources to address the sanitation challenges of the country.
Mr Speaker, Government-led initiatives such as this should ordinarily, translate into formidable achievements or outcomes. But cast your eyes around, and it is almost as if we never did anything at all. Despite the invaluable time and resources expended on this initiative, we continue to grapple with these same unsustainable, unproductive, and unhealthy situations of sanitation in the country. Perhaps it is a very good example of how not to tackle these issues of sanitation of a country.
It goes without saying that after 67 years of independence, one thing that profoundly highlights the urgent need for very rigorous efforts to improve waste management infrastructure and policies would be that, as at March 2023, only a paltry 25 per cent households in Ghana have access to basic, safe sanitation infrastructure.
The recent cholera outbreak in Ghana has had a devastating impact, particularly in my constituency, Ahanta West. Between October and December 2024, 345 of my people were affected, and sadly, four lives were lost. Communities that depend on fishing, such as Adjoa, Funko, Amanfrom, Dixcove, and others, face significant challenges, including lack of waste management, limited access to clean drinking water, and inadequate public toilets. In towns like Agona Nkwanta, Abura, and Apowa, improper waste disposal is rampant, with refuse being dumped in areas like Damtsi, Miemia, and the Apowa Cemetery. This not only creates severe environmental risks, but also poses a serious threat to public health.
Unfortunately, despite the urgency of these issues, both duty-bearers and citizens alike seem nonchalant about it. These sanitation issues do not only impact negatively on our health and general well-being as a people; it also tarnishes our image internationally, hinders the growth of tourism in my constituency, as well as stifles the economic potential of Ahanta West.
Mr Speaker, I know that the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has had some budgetary allocations over the years towards addressing the sanitation challenges of the nation. From the Ministry of Finance’s Budget Statement 2020-2023, the Ministry was allocated GH₵360 million in 2020, GH₵362 million in 2021, GH₵360 million in 2022, and GH₵374 million in 2023, indicating a steady increase of funding.
Notwithstanding, our sanitation does not appear to be improving, highlighting the need for more targeted and effective utilisation of resources to achieve meaningful outcomes.
Mr Speaker, any approach to solving sanitation challenges without carefully considering homelessness, “street-ism”, and slum proliferation will not succeed. I am afraid we cannot win the sanitation war until we purposefully and pragmatically begin to tackle homelessness, “street-ism”, and slum proliferation in the urban and peri-urban communities as a nation.
It is not lost on us that inadequate housing across the country, economic hardship, unemployment, poverty, rapid rural-urban migration et cetera, have all contributed to the expansion of slums, homelessness and streetism, giving rise to improper and indiscriminate waste disposal practices and the poor sanitation situation we have on our hands. We cannot continue to downplay the severity of this challenge, seeing the very danger it poses to our survival as people. To effectively address these interconnected challenges, I propose the following measures.
One, national dialogue on rural urban migration and economic empowerment. There should be such government-led national dialogue once a year, involving all stakeholders, which includes civil society organisations, chiefs, clergy, academia, business community, state institutions, members of public, et cetera. This dialogue would crystallise or help to bring to the fore the real causative factors of rural-urban migration and propose immediate practical and pragmatic solutions towards stemming it and promote economic empowerment in rural areas.
Two, deliberate housing and urbanisation strategy for rural communities. This strategy should see the provision of decent low-cost housing with basic social amenities on higher purchase for rural community dwellers.
Three, national drive on proper waste segregation and disposal. There must be a sustained roadblock, educational and enforcement campaign on proper waste segregation and disposal. This would immediately give a boost to and expand the waste recycling and collection industry, thereby creating job opportunities for our teeming unemployed youth and keeping our environment clean and healthy.
Four, public-private partnerships. Collaborate with the private sector to mobilise resource and expertise for large-scale sanitation infrastructure projects, ensuring efficiency and sustainability.
Five, strengthening enforcement of sanitation laws. District Assemblies and all relevant agencies must strictly enforce the existing sanitation laws and regulations and apply appropriate sanctions and penalties in the event of any violations.
Six, youth employment in sanitation services. Encourage the youth to consider the business opportunities inherent in the various branches of the sanitation management industry.
Seven, provision of labelled litter bins at designated areas and public spaces. This should serve as a clear signal of a new era where indiscriminate waste disposal shall not be countenanced.
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, addressing the sanitation challenge as occasioned by improper waste disposal practices, homelessness, streetism and slum proliferation, et cetera, obviously demands a coordinated and sustained effort by duty-bearers and public alike. With education, enforcement of existing laws, investing in infrastructure and economically empowering our youth, our people, wherever they are, we can achieve a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous Ghana. Let us commit to these measures and work together to transform our urban and rural landscapes for the betterment of all citizens
I thank you, Mr Speaker, for this opportunity
Hon Isaac Boamah-Nyarko
Effia
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to comment on the Statement ably made by my Sister from Ahanta West on sanitation and its situation and effects in this country.
Mr Speaker, the data regarding sanitation situation in Ghana is very alarming. From just about 25 per cent of our people having access to basic services to over 57 per cent of our population sharing public services, to the extent that almost 20 per cent of our population still go into open defecation in this country in 2025, is very worrying and alarming. The issue about our sanitation—We have had Ministries set up, Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, yet we have never been able to properly address the issue of sanitation in this country. When you take our water situation in Ghana, the adverse effect of galamsey has affected our water resources to the extent that even the ability of Ghana Water Company to treat water and make it affordable and accessible to Ghana is under threat.
Mr Speaker, I visited my Hon Sister’s constituency this weekend. I had an invitation to Dixcove to participate in an inauguration of a reverend minister, and between Agona Nkwanta and Dixcove, I had this alarming situation where bushfires or burning of trash was ongoing at some areas. When you look at the electricity poles and the wires around where the bush was being burnt, I was very concerned because if there should be a fire outbreak along that stretch, you can imagine when Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) would be called upon to get into that community and quench those fires. All of these are threats to our sanitation situation in this country.
Mr Speaker, I would wish that we take a serious look at some of the recommendations. I would like to add to some of the recommendations made by my Sister that we embark on education and raise awareness on the devastating effect of sanitation concerns in this country. Where does the waste that we make in this country go to? How well have we concerned ourselves in encouraging recycling of waste in this country? This morning, watching Cable News Network (CNN), one country—I missed that country, but they have been able to decompose or work on their waste management to the extent that the power that is generated out of it is able to power over 165,000 households. Yet in this country, we are generating a lot of waste, and there is no end to how well we are going to recycle the waste. So, I think we should be looking towards recycling of waste.
Mr Speaker, finally, the issue about open defecation, I think we need to have a national discourse, and I call upon the Minister for Works, Housing and Water Resources to come to this House with appropriate policy direction on how to end open defecation in this country because it is very bad, and it is
unGhanaian, and we should be able to bring solutions to some of these matters.
Mr Speaker, without more, I want to commend my Hon Lady from Ahanta West for this issue that has been brought to the floor of the House, and I think that we all, as Members of Parliament, should speak and make sure that the sanitation situation improves in this country.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker
Hon Philip Fiifi Buckman
Kwesimintsim
Mr Speaker, I am very grateful for the opportunity. First, I would want to humbly commend my Hon Sister for making the Statement.
Mr Speaker, respectfully, I would want to add to the recommendations made, especially, reiterating the point on education. I have always believed that if we are able to educate ourselves, especially if sanitation education is carried out in schools, we would be able to have that idea imbued in the minds of the children.
Mr Speaker, you can see that in our culture or tradition, children believe that anything that is not good should be thrown into the gutter. We do not segregate it: that waste water should go into the gutter and solid ones should go somewhere. We put all together. If it is not good, it should be put it in the gutter. So, if we educate and indoctrinate ourselves—Because health is everything, and sanitation is the basis for improving the health of the people.
Mr Speaker, I had the opportunity to meet with the heads of the various departments in my constituency, Kwesimintsim, yesterday to prepare ourselves for the upcoming rains. It would baffle you that whatever came out from the engineers was about choked gutters, which needed to be desilted. Huge sums of money would have to be used in desilting those gutters.
Mr Speaker, I am of the humble view that there should also be that symbiotic relationship between the chiefs, assemblies, assemblymen, and the youth leaders of the various communities to tell themselves that they would live in a community that is free of filth. We are going to live in a community that is free of filth. I am happy that my sister dovetailed the fact about people walking around. Any person who loiters litters; those who loiter litter. So, we should be able to curb that, especially, providing the opportunity for our youth who live in slums, providing jobs for them, even using them to solve the same sanitation problem while we pay them. We should try as much as possible to make them see that if we put ourselves in that situation of helping solve the problem of sanitation, we would live a healthy life.
Also, I would humbly suggest that Government should be able—And I am happy that the NDC had the youth manifesto where many things were outlined including, using sanitation to employ many youths. I would just implore the Minister over there to ensure that whatever was written in that manifesto is carried out for the betterment of ourselves, to ensure that we live in a healthy environment and also use it to provide job avenues for the youth.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Hon Fred Kyei Asamoah
Offinso North
Hon Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity and also to appreciate the maker of the Statement regarding sanitation.
Mr Speaker, if you come to my Constituency, Offinso North, it has grown to the extent that the major towns in Offinso North; Afrancho, Akumadan, and Nkenkaasu had majority of their refuse dumping place located at the centre of the main towns.
Mr Speaker, when it rains, it is an eyesore. I think it is high time we created more jobs by relocating this refuse dump to a far place. Of course, in addition, we can turn this waste into energy generation. So, as we are thanking the maker of the Statement, we believe that the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry for Works and Housing can come out with a strategy and a plan so that we can make sure that all these major refuse dumping places are not seen within the main towns where, when it rains, it tends to choke all the gutters and leads to other issues.
In addition, as we are talking about sanitation, one major issue that tends to cause more disease is health waste management. With health waste, one can look at both infectious waste and noninfectious waste. Many times, how do we see our hospitals and our healthcare facilities managing this waste? If not properly managed, it tends to cause more diseases than we expect. So, as we are looking at sanitation issues, we should not only consider what is happening within our communities, which we know is a major problem, but in addition, we should have a critical look at health waste management which has led to a lot of diseases across the country.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah
Salaga South
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Let me start by commending my Hon Colleague for such a deep Statement. It is all-encompassing. She touched on almost everything that relates to the main subject matter of sanitation, and I think that she deserves to be highly commended.
Mr Speaker, in the Chamber this morning, we started with sanitation, the environment and health, thanks to a Statement by the Hon Minority Leader which necessitated the presence of the Hon Minister for Health to throw some light on the current outbreak of cholera and meningitis in the country. In every single contribution, we touched on the issue of the environment and sanitation. So, we could as well maybe declare today the day of sanitation in the Parliament of Ghana.
Mr Speaker, sanitation becomes the center stage of our very livelihoods. We cannot continue as a human race without paying attention to our environment and sanitation. I have heard speaker over speaker reiterate the importance of education and how the society must be educated on managing sanitation, waste disposal, and their attendant challenges.
But Mr Speaker, one thing I have not heard is that it all starts with us. No one can educate us better than our own environment. The home where you and I are parents, where you and I are guardians, must be the starting point of this education and orientation towards proper hygienic and sanitation practices.
Mr Speaker, I say this because hand washing is something that should just come to us naturally, depending on how we were taught to do it at home. No teacher can force us to wash our hands because how long do we stay in the schools? All of us spend more time at home than anywhere else. So, if we start at home and we teach our children proper hygienic practices, as parents, as adults in the house, if we undertake proper waste disposal, that becomes the experience of the children and that is how the children will live their lives.
Mr Speaker, I insist that it starts with us. In this Parliament, Mr Speaker, our washrooms are areas that we should be paying attention to before we can go and tell anyone else how to manage hygiene and sanitation in their various places. In our washrooms, it is either the sinks are broken or sometimes when you go there beyond 4:00 p.m., the water will not be flowing. I have had occasion to buy water from the canteen to go and wash my hands. Sometimes there is no soap.
This is where it starts and this is where we then have the authority to tell the Minister for Health, the Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, and the Minister for Works, Housing and Water Resources that this is how we grow a society in an effort to keep everybody well, first of all; and secondly to reduce the health bill.
So, Mr Speaker, I want to charge all of us in this room that we make it a priority to ensure that we practise good hygiene from here, pass it on to our children and dependents and the multiplying effect is the larger society out there.
Mr Speaker, the rains are coming and already in my Constituency of Salaga South, there is no water. Now, without running water, without potable water, how do you insist that people must wash their hands? Open gutters have become the place where refuse and waste are dumped, especially when it starts to rain. As soon as it starts to rain, everybody brings the waste from their homes and dumps them into the gutter. So, no matter the number of times you desilt the gutter, the gutter will always be choked. Mr Speaker, once again, it starts from us.
Thank you very much for the opportunity.
Hon Nikyema Billa Alamzy
Chiana-Paga
Thank you, Mr Speaker. This is my maiden statement that I am going to make. I am very grateful to you and I would not forget this day because this is going to be the first time I am clearing my throat in Parliament.
I want to commend the maker of the Statement. She talked about sanitation and we all know sanitation is very important because it is about everyday life. What I can say is that when we are talking about sanitation, the major role we play is the disposal of urine and faeces. This morning has been about cholera. We can give different definitions of cholera. Different scholars might have different definitions but the simple truth is that cholera means one is eating someone's faeces. That is the plain truth.
Today, one is eating somebody's faeces by either taking in water or eating food that contains the cholera bacteria. That is how one contracts it. We all understand the pain one goes through when one contracts cholera and the way it can cause life-threatening watery diarrhoea and vomiting.
But the question is, are we educating our people enough? The education that we are giving, is it adequate? That is the question. Are we telling our people that we can prevent it in a way? That is a question we are yet to answer.
But I can tell the House that educating our people on drinking more water and safe water, of course, can prevent cholera. Taking in either boiled water, filtered water, or natural mineral water, which goes through reverse osmosis, can prevent cholera drastically. What I would add is, how do we go to toilet in Ghana? Is it all of us that have access to proper toilet facilities? No. How do we get rid of our poop? That is a problem.
So, education must go on very well so that we can do away with cholera, just like we have been talking about it since morning. But I would add that waste management is the way to go. Either personal hygiene or community hygiene. And I want to say—I do not know how many might feel, but the two parties are all guilty of it—is that we do not try to decentralise our waste management system. We have a single company in Ghana managing every district's waste. That is a problem.
So, I will advise and plead with the House to look into it and try to decentralise it so that we can have companies in the districts that will be managing the districts' waste. It will be better than centralising it for one company to manage it in Ghana.
Mr Speaker, I once again want to say thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to clear my throat and I will always be grateful for it.
Hon Laadi Ayii Ayamba
Pusiga
Mr Speaker, thank you for your understanding. And congratulations to all those who were praying for me, but it is not bye-bye yet because I have not finished. Let me also congratulate the lady. The issue of sanitation has long been discussed. Year in, year out, we continuously talk about it. We have had talks on having cleaner cities and cleaner towns. That has not happened but we still hope for the best.
When it comes to items or things that cause much disaster, Mr Speaker, we need to be looking at the plastics that are being used; it is an eyesore. When one goes to our beaches and look at the way the sea continuously brings back the plastics, it is a shame and yet we continue to throw plastics in it. We need to also make efforts to ensure that even where plastics, bottles and papers are gathered, there should be separation.
Mr Speaker, in this country, we have someone who is supposed to be taking care of our sanitation problems in all the districts with loads of moneys being paid directly to that company and yet we see very little. I think we need to re-look at that issue. But let me come to homelessness. When one goes out there, I do not know, but I think we have so much to do and I would plead with the Ministry for Gender, Children and Social Protection to look into that issue; the children are so many. Even if they are not Ghanaians, let us find a way of handling the issue of homelessness and those that are Ghanaians, let us also try to find a way of finding their relatives.
Mr Speaker, not only that, some of them that have got mental problems and they need to be supported. Please, now, we hear about fire outbreaks in the slums and when we get there, because it is a slum, there are so many kiosks that are burnt. Can we look at that issue and ensure that even if there is an issue of fire outbreak and our fire service people go there to support, they are able to put off fire because it is becoming too much.
Mr Speaker, I think that you have done me a favour. I am grateful and then I will congratulate, especially, my Brothers and Sisters on the other Side who always want to hear from me, byebye.
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