The Savannah Regional Minister, Salisu Be-Awuribe, has called on Municipal and District Assemblies (M/DAs) in the region to strictly enforce sanitation bye-laws and take legal action against residents who persistently flout them.
He said the directive was necessary to improve environmental sanitation and promote greater responsibility among residents for the cleanliness of their communities.
Mr Be-Awuribe stressed that maintaining a clean environment should not be left solely to the government, assemblies or sanitation workers, but should begin with individuals and households.
He therefore urged residents to take personal responsibility for keeping their homes and immediate surroundings clean, noting that existing laws placed an obligation on individuals to maintain proper sanitation.
The minister made the call at a two-day engagement in Salaga in the East Gonja Municipality, organised to account to residents on the government’s achievements during its first one-and-a-half years in office.
The engagement also provided an opportunity for the minister to brief residents on development projects, interact with traditional leaders and receive feedback on challenges confronting communities.
The Member of Parliament for Salaga South, Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah, the Municipal Chief Executive for East Gonja, Yazid Kassim Rabiu, and other officials attended the programme.
Youth employment
Mr Be-Awuribe also disclosed that 3,107 young people in the Savannah Region had so far secured employment under the youth employment programme.
He said the initiative was helping to reduce unemployment while providing beneficiaries with opportunities to gain work experience and develop their skills.
For her part, Hajia Ibrahimah said the development priorities of the Salaga South Constituency had been shaped by challenges identified during her campaign and subsequent engagements with communities.
She identified inadequate access to electricity as one of the major challenges, saying about 41 communities in the constituency were still not connected to the national grid.
She said efforts were ongoing to extend electricity to underserved communities, with work currently underway to connect 11 communities.
Healthcare intervention
Hajia Ibrahimah also highlighted the construction of a modern clinic at Kakushi as one of the key interventions undertaken during her first year in office.
She said residents in communities along the Bawu-Kafaba stretch previously had to travel several kilometres to Bawu, Kafaba or Sarada to access healthcare because of the absence of health facilities in the area.
The East Gonja MCE, for his part, reaffirmed the assembly’s commitment to ensuring that residents benefited from national development programmes.
He urged young people to act as watchdogs over development projects in their communities to help prevent the theft of materials and ensure that public resources were used for their intended purposes.
