By Iddi Yire, GNA
Senya Beraku (C/R), Nov. 23, GNA - Intervention Forum (IF), a non-governmental organisation, has urged the Awutu Senya District Assembly (ASDA) to expedite action on its measures to improve sanitation and hygiene within the district.
A baseline study, which was conducted in the District in October this year by IF highlighted the need for both the Assembly and Zoomlion to focus on ensuring that more sanitation and hygiene services in terms of the provision of improved solid waste disposal options were available and accessible; a respond to citizens’ needs were adequate and properly functioning.
The study was undertaken to make available a reliable database on current levels of sanitation services with ASDA, and to facilitate interventions by decision-makers to identify issues of poor sanitation and draw all stakeholders into dialogue on possible solutions.
As part of the Voice for Change Partnership (V4CP) of the Netherlands Development Organisation, activities scheduled for this year, IF, an implementing partner, conducted a Focus Group Discussion in the Awutu Senya District to assess changes in terms of citizens’ satisfaction with the sanitation and hygiene service delivery by the Assembly and Zoomlion.
As was undertaken in the baseline assessments in February 2018, participants were sampled from three out of six zonal areas and specifically, six selected communities and suburbs namely Ofaakor, Rock city, Andam, Kasoa Zongo, New Town and Opeikuma.
In all, 32 participants, comprising of 16 males and females each, youth, unit committee and assembly members were involved in the assessment process.
The scoring process was carried out through individual voting on the respective services matched against the performance criteria and then followed by a group discussion.
Mr Charles Odoi Anang, Assistant Programmes Officer at IF, who presented the Community Scorecard Findings at Senya Beraku, said in the area of sanitary inspections towards general hygiene in public places, schools and workplaces, the satisfaction score was 10.8
He said in terms of relevance, an aggregate score of 2.2 was issued by participants owing to the fact that they felt the Assembly had become lax with its sanitary inspections efforts in recent years and as such, were not meeting citizens’ needs.
He said on accessibility, a combined score of 1.6 was given because most citizens believed that the sanitary inspection service was not widespread.
“Apart from participants from Kasoa Zongo and an instance cited by a resident of Ofaakor, all other persons stipulated they had not been experiencing sanitary inspections for a long while now”, he added.
Mr Anang said on affordability, a score of five was given since the service, when rendered, did not come at any charge or cost to citizens.
He said on quality, an aggregate score of two was issued on the note that services provided in this regard were not enough, for instance, citizens from Kasoa Newtown opinionated strongly, for the second year running, inspections could help immensely improve the community’s S&H situation.
The findings also touched on other areas including; support towards improved household toilet facility construction; sanitation enforcement management; environmental sanitaton and hygiene education; food hygiene education; and provision of drains.
Mr Atsu Agbezudor, District Coordinating Director at ASDA, commended IF for their effort in helping to address sanitation issues within ASDA, saying "their programmes are not only about interventions but also advocacy, which has helped them to realise their social accountability the Assembly has to offer".
He said sanitation is a shared responsibility which implied that all stakeholders must collaborate to ensure the communities are clean, in that regard the role of the Assembly was to ensure that the findings were implemented in all communities.
GNA
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