Coastal line sanitation is shared responsibility- Deputy Fisheries Minister


The Deputy Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Benita Sena Okity-Duah says the maintenance of proper sanitation and protection of coastal lines should not be the sole responsibility of recruited coastal guards but a shared responsibility. 

Coastal communities should therefore help in ensuring clean beaches along the coastal belt of the country. 

Madam Okity-Duah made the call at the launch of the Coastal Sanitation, Water Bodies Protection and Coastal Protection Assistants module of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) at Tapa-Abotoase in the Biakuye District of the Volta Region. 

She noted that proper sanitation promotes health, improves the quality of the environment as well as the quality of life in a community. 

Madam Okity-Duah said poor sanitation at the coastal communities has been a problem with negative social implications for the country resulting in the outbreak of communicable diseases in the communities whilst unhygienic sanitary conditions of the beaches affect the quality of fish exported to the European Union. 

She disclosed that the Ministry has therefore come up with the Social Coastal Project to revamp landing sites to enhance sanitation in the fishing communities. 

This will include the construction of toilets with wash room facilities, the provision of biogas plant, boreholes and water reservoir and pavilions to be constructed to host outdoor performances on health, immunization and other recreational activities. 

The Chief Executive Officer of the YEA, Kwame Beechem disclosed that the Agency is tasked with providing 100 thousand jobs for the youth in the country. 

He said, so far 56 thousand youth have been employed in the various modules. 

Mr. Beechem said the Youth in Coast Sanitation (YCS) module is sanitation oriented and they will be responsible for the day-to-day cleaning and protection of beaches, planting trees and prevent activities like sand wining and open defecation and also serve as tour guides to tourists who frequent the beaches and the coast belts of Ghana. 

Mr. Beechem stressed that it is therefore incumbent on the inhabitants and the communities to avoid practices that are likely to endanger the maintenance of good sanitation in their areas.


GBC