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Alhaji Collins Dauda, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, has challenged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to strictly enforce their sanitation bye-laws to make them more “biting” for offenders.

According to him the current state of filth that was engulfing the country as well as the negative attitudes of majority of Ghanaians towards their environments was unacceptable.

Alhaji Dauda was addressing participants at the Duapa Awards for MMDAs on Wednesday who competed in the first phase of the “Sanitation Challenge for Ghana” Project of which 20 out of the 48 who submitted their strategies to the international judges emerged successful.

Alhaji Dauda said statistics on health and sanitation indicated that less that 40 per cent of the urban population had access to proper waste disposal, while 30 per cent of households had access to toilet facilities.

The poor sanitation practices, resulting from improper disposal of plastics and liquid waste leading to blocked drainage systems, has accounted for the 80 per cent record of Out Patient Department complaints of cholera, dysentery, malaria and Bilharzia throughout the year, which were all sanitation-related.

Alhaji Dauda said the current overwhelming poor sanitation was a drain on the national budget and required stiffer policies, strategies and strict enforcement of existing sanitation bye-laws to serve as punitive measures for recalcitrant and unpatriotic citizens.

He, therefore, challenged the MMDAs to lead in keeping a clean environment by involving, educating and pursuing communities to clean their surroundings.

He explained that the first phase of the project, launched during the 2015 World Toilet Day as a component of the ideas to Impact Global Initiative, was to stimulate competition among MMDAs and encourage inclusive partnership for the design and implementation of liquid waste management strategies.

Out of the 20 winners, the Jasikan District Assembly received the first prize of 30,000 pounds sterling from the UKAid to assist in the execution of its strategic objectives, followed by the Atiwa District Assembly receiving 25, 000 pounds to assist in its GHS 3.5 million sanitation project, with the Nanumba North District Assembly in Bimbila taking the third prize of 20,000 pounds for its exceptional performance. The other 17 received plaques as honorary awards. .

Alhaji Dauda used the occasion to launch the second phase of the project which involves the actual implementation of the various strategies developed by the participating MMDAs.

He challenged all the other winners including the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirim District Assembly, the Accra, Cape Coast and Kumasi Metropolitan assemblies, and the Kassina Nankana, Savelugu Nanton, Awutu Senya East and Secondi Takoradi Municipal assemblies to keenly compete in the second phase of the project to win the ultimate prize.