Mr Samuel Kwashie Tawiah, Assemblyman for Tsuibleoo South Electoral Area, has expressed his commitment to ensuring the reduction of malaria cases and related deaths within the Ledzokuku Municipality.
Mr Tawiah said getting rid of the filth in the communities was necessary and would go a long way to prevent malaria incidents within the municipality and the country at large.
According to the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the country recorded a total of 54 malaria deaths between January and March 2020.
Out of that figure, 16 of the deaths were among children under five years.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that every two minutes, a child died from malaria and the statistics should make duty bearers restless because malaria was a preventable and treatable disease.
It is for this reason that the Tsuibleoo Assemblyman remained committed as he organized a clean-up exercise in his electoral area to clear the filth and ensure a clean and healthy environment.
Mr Tawiah, noted that the choked gutters, as well as the mosquitoes, were a nuisance, hence an effort to clear filth and prevent the malaria pandemic in the municipality.
He said: “With consistent clean-up exercises we will be able to get rid of filth in the communities and save the populace from malaria, adding that the festive occasion would be most enjoyed in a clean and healthy environment”.
He was however worried that such an effort was being hampered due to a lack of logistics to execute his mandate as well as other Assemblymen who had become ineffective due to the lack of working tools.
“I normally organise clean-up exercises at least two or three times in a year but this is the only exercise I have organised because having the logistics to work with is hard for me, so I had to improvise for logistics to get the exercise done”.
Mr Tawiah pleaded with the Assembly to provide the necessary logistics to enable them to clean the municipality as expected and save the populace, particularly children from malaria deaths.
He noted that the operation cleans your frontage initiative had not been effective due to a lack of education and said the clean-up exercises would not be necessary if the initiative had been successful.
The Assemblyman was supported by members of the community and some youth groups including Unity Fun club, With God fun club and Oasis of Love group.
According to the groups being part of the exercise was a civic responsibility to ensure a clean environment.
Nana Frimpong Manso, Secretary of the Unity Fun Club, expressed worry over poor sanitation conditions in the area and called for education among the populace as well as stringent measures to curb indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the municipality.
He urged residents to learn how to dispose of their refuse properly.” When people get to know of such clean-up exercises or see the cloud forming, they would bring refuse from their homes and dump it on the streets and gutters, which is not the best.”
