‘Blame MMDAs for poor sanitation’

Metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) have been blamed for most of the country’s sanitation problems.

The acting Director of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate, Naa Lenason Demedeme, who said this, indicated that waste management was a direct responsibility of the MMDAs.

Consequently, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has tasked the MMDAs to prepare strategic District Environmental Sanitation Strategic Action Plans (DESSAP) to tackle the menace of waste management.

 Naa Demedeme observed that most of the waste was basically generated from markets and lorry parks, and MMDAs  collected tolls from traders in the market and commercial drivers for the purposes of managing the waste. He emphasised that if all MMDAs were using the funds available to them for the purpose of managing waste, the problem of waste management would not have escalated to the current extent.

MMDAs have funds for waste management 

Naa Demedeme said that the DESSAP qualified MMDAs for  District Development Facilities (DDFs), part of  which they are expected to allocate to  waste management. 

The DDF is a performance-based grant system being implemented by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and  was started as part of the government's efforts to improve the performance of the  MMDAs in terms of efficiency, transparency and accountability. 

 The DDF’s specific objectives are to mobilise additional financial resources for MMDAs; provide incentives for performance; establish a link between performance assessment and capacity-building support; and ensure a harmonised system for investment funding and capacity-building support to MMDAs.

According to  Naa Demedeme, a forum has been held in Accra to assess the implementation of the DESSAP. 

The forum

The one-day forum aimed at assessing the implementation of the DESSAP by the Ministry Of Local Government and Rural Development,  as well as the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate. 

It  was also intended to identify challenges that the MMDAs faced in the implementation of the DESSAP and determine how the government could support them. 

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu, in his address, said the outcome of the forum would largely inform policies and budgetary allocations in the future.

Identification of problem areas

According to the minister, the ministry had not signed any contract or entered into any agreement with sanitation and waste management companies to pay them; rather, MMDAs were responsible for such payments, since they collect revenue from the people.

He said the presentations made by the MMDAs would help the ministry to come up with a lasting solution to the menace and determine how the government could help them.

Writers e-mail doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh