LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT ON SANITATION
Dear Sir,
I believe and hope you are very well and enjoying the full grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Your Exellency, I will love to remind you of few things you and your government are forgetting.
Please I hope you witnessed the era of Health Inspectors (Tankas as they were called) who where under the Ministry of Health (MOH) before they were transferred to MLGRD in 1994?
Please Sir I hope you witnessed the same Health Inspectors from 1994 under MLGRD till now, 2019, and their performance under the MOH and now under MLGRD?
Please let’s kindly ask ourselves, what has changed about the work of the Health Inspectors (Tankas now Environmental Health Officers )?
They were very resourced and recognized under MOH than now that they are under MLGRD.
Now under MLGRD they aren’t recognized and no resources are given to them to work.
They were able to arrest and deal with anybody under every sector including the MLGRD but since they were transferred to MLGRD, those powers are no more there. The proactive work of Health Inspectors(Tankas) of the olden days died off the very day they were transferred to MLGRD, and that is the dire consequences we are seeing today!
MLGRD is a political appointment ministry and I believe, Essential Services like Sanitation and Waste Management shouldn’t have been transferred to such ministry.
In Europe, most of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Services are under the City Councils which are devoid of the kind of political inteference we practice here in Ghana!
In other part of the world, Environmental Health Officers are still under the MOH, performing the same duties that those Officers in Ghana are performing and they are on top of the Sanitation issues. So how can they be under MLGRD, Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources etc, under resourced and not recognized and we expect them to perform DUTIES WITH THIS POLITICAL INTERFERENCE NATURE OF MMDAs?
Ironically, Ghanaians are crying for the comeback of Health Inspectors, even though, they are still there.
Every MMDAs has Health Inspectors/Environmental Health Officers (Tankas)
And so if they are clearly recognized and fully resourced, why would Ghanaians call for the come back like they used to do in the olden days?
Mr. President if we don’t visit the olden days and give this health inspectors (Tankas) the powers it requires then your vision won’t be materialise as you want Accra to be the cleanest city in West Africa.
I will love to end here, I believe this letter will find you well.
Thanks so much for your attention and your time!
Your Citizen
Nana Tuffour Ampem Brakatu
Sanitation Prefect
