Michigan State assists G East Municipality

Published in the Daily Graphic on 13/01/2010, pg 16

Story: Matilda Attram, Abokobi
The Ga-East Municipal Assembly is to receive a $115,000 grant from the state of Michigan in the United States of America (USA) for the construction of a health facility.
The grant is to be released through an initiative of the Bill and Gates Foundation under the auspices of the Grand Rapids Sister City International (GRSCI) mechanism, which forms part of the African Poverty Alleviation Project (AUPAP).
The Ga-East Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Kwao Sackey, announced this at the assembly’s fifth General Assembly Meeting in Accra.
The meeting reviewed its development activities in the year 2009 and plotted the way forward in 2010.
Mr Sackey said the health facility that would be built at Taifa in Accra followed discussions held between the assembly and a four-member delegation from sister-city partners of the Grand Rapids, USA, last November.
He noted that the facility would help improve on the assembly's public health system and reduce the pressure on the health facilities in the district.
Mr Sackey said waste management was one of the major challenges facing the communities in the district due to the high level of population influx, adding that the situation needed to be looked at.
“This has resulted in the increase of the volume of refuse generated daily and consequently the inability to effectively manage it. In their attempt to retrieve scrap metals, scavengers continue to set fire to the refuse, thereby polluting the environment with smoke, stench and flying plastic materials,” he stated.
He stressed the urgent need to relocate the refuse dumping site of the assembly to prevent health hazards associated with it.
In relation to the sanitation problems, Mr Sackey said the Public Health Department of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit of the assembly had initiated programmes in schools and the communities to educate students and assembly members on related issues. Some of the issues are personal hygiene and environmental sanitation, and also enforced environmental sanitation rules and regulations.
The MCE expressed worry about the lack of household latrines in the municipality, which he said, was below 25 per cent. This, he said, explained the total reliance of the populace on public toilets in the surroundings and the indiscriminate defecating everywhere.
The MCE said the management of the assembly had decided to sell two of its tractors to the farmer’s association within the municipality in order to support the youth in agriculture programmes, and called on the assembly to amend its previous decision to sell the tractors to individuals.
Mr Sackey further indicated that revenue mobilisation in the municipality was ineffective due to some irregularities in the way and manner revenue collection was handled in the past.
“It was discovered that most of the contract agreements with the revenue contractors were not properly signed. We also found out that the duration was too long and that was what led to the review of the contract to make them more effective,” added Mr Sackey.
Mr Sackey entreated all departmental heads in the municipality to submit their performance review reports early to enable them to obtain support from the assembly. He also called on the Government to help solve the problems of the municipality.
In a related development, the Ministry of Local Government has donated 10 bicycles to the Waste and Sanitation Management Guards under the National Youth Employment Programme in the municipality to enable them to monitor sanitation activities in the municipality.