Findings of the study suggest that lack of transparency and accountability is hampering the attainment of the Millennium Development Goal on potable water provision.

Vitus Azeem, Executive Secretary of Ghana Integrity Initiative said the GII assessed the current situation and identified the dangers of not having transparency and accountability in service provision in the Greater Accra, Volta and Ashanti regions.

The case-study came out with two main types of corruption – grand corruption and petty corruption.

Grand corruption, he explained, has to do with the award of more contracts to one person, therefore eliminating competition completely.

“This has to do with efficiency because you don’t have the capacity to do three contracts at the same time and meet the required deadlines.”

With regard to the petty corruption, Mr Azeem said they are mainly illegal connections; illegal charges especially with regard to new connections; meter tempering; cashiers not declaring the receipts on time amongst others.

“And all these work against the efficient delivery of water to the majority of Ghanaians,” he said.

To address the prevailing situation, the GII report recommended the involvement of civil society in the procurement procedures; reviewing and tightening of existing laws; sanction persons who contravene regulations.

The report also asked donors to put in place measures to ensure transparency and accountability in their agreement.

Source: Myjoyonline

He said a national sentinel survey in 2010 indicated an unprecedented increase of the disease in Region, with a prevalence rate of 2.4 per cent as compared to the national average rate of 1.4 per cent.

Dr Awoonor-Williams made this known in an address at a regional HIV and AIDS conference in Bolgatanga on the theme: “Reducing HIV Prevalence rate and mitigating its effects; the role of stakeholders.”

He said the red flag areas are Bolgatanga and Bawku Municipalities and the Kassena Nankana East District.

Dr Awoonor- Williams called on stakeholders to attach seriousness to their approach in reversing the “embarrassing situation”.

He said people affected with the disease were those in their formative and productive ages of 15 to 40.

The conference aimed at highlighting the burden of HIV and AIDS in the Region and the threat it posed to socio- economic development and increase the knowledge of participants in the prevention, treatment and care of People Living with HIV and AIDS.

It also focussed on how to develop key interventions or actions for implementation to minimise the effect of the disease.

Dr Awoonor-Awoonor said the core component of interventions in the Region remained testing and counselling, prevention of mother to child transmission of the virus, Anti- Retroviral Therapy, Sexually Transmitted Infections Management, Behavioural Change communication and targeted risk reduction programmes.

He said only few of the people who tested positive to HIV and AIDS returned to health facilities for counselling and treatment.

Mrs Lucy Awuni, Deputy Regional Minister, commended the Regional Health Directorate for organising the conference, which she said aimed at harnessing the collective efforts of stakeholders in the fight against the pandemic and the reduction of the menace in the Region.

She said it was the expectation of Government that no child was either born with HIV and AIDS or orphaned by the disease.

General News of Thursday, 15 September 2011

Source: GNA

“We assure the good people of Ghana that though generally there are improvements in sanitary conditions when compared with 2008, Government will not accept the present situation…,” it said in a statement signed by the Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in Accra.

“… hence we are scaling up efforts at all fronts, including massive investments in infrastructure (and) modern methods of waste disposals, to ensure that our realistic target of making Ghana clean and eliminating its attendant health risks are met,” it said.

The statement said most Ghanaians had expected the NPP, “which had failed to implement any useful strategy to improve sanitary conditions even when they created the superfluous Ministry of Tourism and Beautification of the Capital City” to show some modicum of remorse and objectivity as government works hard to avoid the NPP’s legacy.

“We do not think that the ‘Konongo Kaya’ style of politics where those who fail to carry out their mandate and would also not assist nor permit others to try is the way forward for this country.”

Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa, who served as Secretary to the Task Force, which was set up during the Transition as early as January 8, 2009 by President John Evans Atta Mills, just a day after he was sworn in as President and which was chaired by Dr. Christine Amoako Nuamah, revealed that the 100-day Task Force “rescued residents in Accra who were being drowned in filth from cataclysmic consequences”.

Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa stressed that the Task Force found out immediately after commencing work that the whole of Accra had only one dump fill site, which was located at Kokroko, a suburb of Mallam. The others at Oblogo and Kwashiebu were full and no longer in use.

“What was worse, it had only a week to be full to capacity and no alternative was ready for use. Indeed coupled with this was the situation where there were heaps of refuse everywhere particularly markets and residences as 600 tonnes of refuse was left unattended to daily and the fact that the 15 Waste Management Contractors at the time had not been paid for several months and so most of them had laid down their tools.”

The statement said the Task Force averted a looming disaster by urgently collaborating with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and Zoomlion by locating a replacement site in an old quarry pit at Mallam at the base of the MacCarthy Hill, adjacent to an old disposal site.

A period of six weeks from January 22 to February 26, 2009 was set for the contractors to complete the evacuation of the heaps of solid wastes nationwide, it said, adding that this was achieved with much success.

It said the Task Force, meanwhile, ensured that the Kokroko-Mallam site was properly reclaimed as residents in the vicinity had been complaining and demonstrating under the NPP government because of the obvious threats and inconvenience which included leachate from the refuse finding its way into their homes and causing cracks in their buildings.

The statement said the reclamation included consultation with residents, pumping of water from the dump, spreading of the refuse to attain a level ground, capping the leveled refuse with laterite and construction of drains to carry leachate from the site.

Subsequently, the Task Force in partnership with the AMA and Zoomlion ensured that a main dump fill site at Sarba in Weija was in good time designed and constructed to serve Accra.

The statement added that Government was pleased with the work of the Task Force as it within 100 days did a lot to avert crisis, ensured a clean nation and made far reaching recommendations.

Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa added that it was “sad and unfortunate” that the recent outbreak of cholera had been exploited for cheap political capital by the NPP when the NPP knew that what we must all commit ourselves to as a nation was to devise ways of halting what had become an annual ritual.

Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa said that the NPP was aware of statistics at the Ghana Health Service which painted this sad yearly picture.

He cited some examples from the Greater Accra Region where in 2001 there were 1,387 cases of cholera out of which 42 people died. In 2002 there were 2,044 cases out of which 47 died; in 2005 there 1,812 cases out of which 21 died and in 2006, there were 1,290 cases out of which 21 died all in the Greater Accra Region alone.

According to the group, the system whereby people contribute to healthcare by paying VAT and NHIL is unfair and wasteful since not all such persons benefit from it.

The Chairman for the Group’s Free Healthcare Campaign Committee, Jeffery Ocansey, told Citi News Government must consider scrapping off the payment of NHIS premium since that contributes only 5% to the scheme.

“Everyone contributes through taxes and then we have the NHIL levy. But when it goes into that basket that we all have to benefit, then we say everybody should register with the NHIS to access. This is supposed to be a pro-poor policy but only a few poor people have been able to register. It still benefits the rich people and the poor are again relegated to the background”.

“An insurance scheme is run on premium, but unfortunately we have a case where the premium only contributes 5% to the scheme. So if 95% of the total money needed to run the scheme will come from the tax system, then why don’t we scrap it off and find a way of making it a reality by contributing through taxes to make healthcare at the basic level free. We are not saying people won’t pay for it. You pay for few taxes and then at the point of need you can access free healthcare” he noted.

Mr. Jeffery Ocansey urged Government to focus on using taxes to provide free healthcare for all rather than implementing a onetime premium payment for the NHIS.

He said a full cost recovery approach through a widened tax system will sustain the scheme and reduce the excessive corruption that threatens it.

Speaking to Citi News, a Deputy Director of Corporate Affairs at the NHIA, Mr. Eric Ametor Quarmyn confirmed that the premium contributes just about 5% to the total income of the NHIS annually.

He however noted that the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) alone does not contribute the rest of 95%. He said a large chunk of the funds is gotten from the two and half percent which Government borrows from the SNNIT Fund on monthly basis, as well as Government’s budgetary support.

Mr. Ametor Quarmyn said although a free Universal healthcare programme was laudable; it has dire consequences as was evident in the first regime of Ghana’s First President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, which eventually brought about the “cash and carry system”.

He said there was the need to make the citizenry part of the system hence the decision to accept their minute contributions.

According to him, Ghana can only opt for free Universal healthcare when the necessary infrastructure is put in place in a congenial environment.

One of the waste management project has already set up in Accra with the estimated daily capacity of disposing 300 tons of wastes in the capital city through the public-private partnership between the government and the Zoomlion Ghana Ltd.

The plant is one of three planned plants build up by Zoomlion, using Chinese technology. Another two will be built in Kumasi, a commercial city, and Takoradi, a coastal city west of the capital.

The plant in Accra was designed to process 300 metric tonnes of waste, he said, adding that the plastic and metals sorted would be supplied to fast establishing recycling companies in the country.

“China for decades now have had this technology developed in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and others to manage waste efficiently and we are pleased to be sharing this with Ghana,” Ding said.

Chairman of the Local Government Committee in Ghana’s parliament, Dominic Azumah, who also spoke to Xinhua during a tour of the project site, said the committee, after visiting China to familiarize themselves with the Chinese waste management system, had come to the conclusion that Ghana needed such a module to deal with its waste management situation.

“We therefore have convince the government to commit 5 million cedis (3.27 million U.S. dollars) as equity to the project in the 2011 budget,” Azumah said, urging the local government ministry to facilitate the quick release of that money for the completion of the project.

He also called for the establishment of smaller recycling machines in all 10 regions of the country to deal with waste at all levels, saying that “we collect the waste well enough, but the problem has always been how to dispose of it.”

The current dump-site in the city, an abandoned stone quarry pit sited at the westernmost end of the capital, is being filled with solid waste for reclaiming purposes.

It however has less than 12 months to be exhausted, and a capital that has already been hard-hit by cholera epidemic needs to find an alternative waste disposal system in the shortest possible time.

Already the residents of Weija, a suburb of the capital where the dumping site is located, have complained to the joint parliamentary committees on local government and road transport about the manner the waste was affecting their community.

Sited close to the Weija dam from which water is collected and treated for over 5 million residents, it is feared that, waste water from this site sipping through features in the rocks into the dam, posed serious health risks for consumers in the capital.

Moreover, flies hover from the dumping site into the communities posing serious health challenges to the people.

Project coordinator, George Kwesi Rockson disclosed that the recycling plant, occupying a land of 140 acres, would be offering employment to hundreds of university and polytechnic graduates who would be trained in modern waste management methods and technology.

Zoomlion Ghana Ltd started partnering government of Ghana since its inception in 2007 to manage waste in the country, using modern technology.

The company, which adopted the name of the Chinese equipment manufacturer, Zoomlion China Ltd, relies heavily on cost effective and simple Chinese technology to do its work.

The waste management company was in charge of waste management at the stadia during the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations finals (CAN 2008) held in Ghana as well as the CAN 2010 finals in Angola. Speaking to Xinhua at the project site, Ding Zhiqiang, project engineer of the waste management plants, said that the project was designed to improve sanitation in the west African country.

When completed, the facilities would have a sorting department using both technology and human resources to sort plastic and other objects from the waste.

It would also have a magnetic separator, bailer for plastic and paper, a vibrating screen and a composting bay where organic manure would be composted into manure for agricultural use.

According to her, the second stage is the elimination of the disease which must be supported by a functioning health system, while the third stage is eradication which is usually global and undertaken when vaccines exist and no case is reported in three years.

Dr Baffoe-Wilmot was addressing the Ghana Health Service (GHS) monthly forum in Accra to commemorate the World Malaria Day on Sunday, April 25.

Malaria is caused by plasmodium parasite and transmitted through the female anopheles mosquito with simple symptoms as fever, headache, muscle pain, loss of appetite and severe symptoms like severe anaemia, blood in urine, convulsion, jaundice and extreme general weakness.

She noted that though recorded cases in Out Patient Departments had reduced from 49.5 per cent in 2001 to 30.0 per cent in 2009, the total malaria admission from 48.0 per cent in 2004 to 44.2 per cent in 2009 for children under five, 34.0 per cent to 30.3 per cent for total malaria and 7.5 per cent to 5.4 per cent for pregnant women during the same period, still pose challenges.

Dr Baffoe-Wilmot said other setbacks include minimum use of insecticide treated nets (ITN) even though ownership is high, misdiagnosis leading to wrong treatment and over consumption of malaria treatment, the prescription of mono therapy by clinicians, ignorance and misconceptions about the disease.

According to her, current strategies to control malaria included indoor residual spraying, environmental management and targeted larviciding, ITN for children under five and pregnant women, free distribution of the nets during mass immunization days and directly observed therapy for pregnant women.

On curative strategies, she noted that treatment had been largely based on presumption diagnosis but now the programme is encouraging diagnosis by microscopy before treatment and drugs for simple and uncomplicated malaria, which include; Artesunate-amodiaquine; artermether-lumefantrine and Dihydro-artsemisinin pieraquine.

Mother and care givers could also be trained to give the correct treatment at home, she added.

“Malaria is responsible for a growth penalty of up to 1.3 per cent per year,” Dr Baffoe-Wilmot noted, adding that it has been estimated that the annual economic burden in Africa is 1.7 billion dollars while a single bout of malaria cost a sum equivalent to over 10 working days in Africa.

In Ghana, 8,200 malaria cases are reported daily, with 4,500 deaths, 1,500 under five deaths while 60 pregnant women die from the disease annually.

She called on the government and the private sector to prioritize malaria control through resource allocation and social responsibilities.

According to a study by the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research on the economic burden of malaria in Ghana, the disease is a challenge to human development and both the cause and consequence of underdevelopment.

It is the number one cause of morbidity accounting for 40-60 per cent of outpatient and the leading cause of mortality in children under five and cause of work lost due to illness.

Source: GNA

Mr Laud Anthony Bassing, of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi said like the deadly disease HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B could be transmitted through kissing and sexual intercourse.

Addressing members of the Catholic Organisation for Social and Regional Advancement (COSRA) in Kumasi at the weekend, Mr. Bassing explained that the disease has all the characteristics of malaria and therefore makes early detection difficult.

The health talk formed part of the activities marking the eighth biennial national games of the organisation on the theme: “COSRA @40, you are the vessel God wants to use to make a difference.”

It was attended by over 600 delegates from 16 archdioceses and dioceses of the Catholic Church.

“Even though Hepatitis B is as viral as AIDS,” he said, “it is deadlier than AIDS and early treatment is critical.” Indeed, he added, it can live outside the body for more than a week and can only be killed by an alcohol of more than 70 per cent concentration.

He said unlike AIDS where one could live with the disease for more than a decade, in the case of the Hepatitis B, “one can live at most for six months after which the disease vanishes or you die from it.” The symptoms include tiredness, diarrhoea and dizziness.

It is, therefore advisable not only to seek early treatment but to test for Hepatitis when treating malaria.

As in the case of AIDS, he advised the public to keep to the ABC of prevention namely abstinence, be faithful in relationship and condom use.

In addition one must avoid using blades, tissues and handkerchiefs that have been used by others.

Speaking at a thanksgiving mass to round off the four-day activities, the Vicar General of the Kumasi Archdiocese, Rev. Msgr. Douglas Peters, advised members of COSRA to take stock of their activities over the years and re-position the organisation to enable it achieve its objectives.

Source: Times/Ghana

The ever-growing demand for the latest fashionable mobile phone, flat screen TV or super-fast computer creates ever larger amounts of obsolete electronics that are often laden with toxic chemicals like lead, mercury and brominated flame retardants. Rather than being safely recycled, much of this e-waste gets dumped in developing countries. Previously, we have exposed pollution from e-waste scrap yards in China and India. Nigeria has also been identified as a dumping ground for old electronics.

During our investigation into the shady e-waste trade, we uncovered evidence that e-waste is being exported, often illegally, to Ghana from Europe and the US. We visited Ghana to investigate workplace contamination from e-waste recycling and disposal in the country.

In the yards, unprotected workers, many of them children, dismantle computers and TVs with little more then stones in search of metals that can be sold. The remaining plastic, cables and casing is either burnt or simply dumped:

Some of the samples contained toxic metals including lead in quantities as much as one hundred times above background levels. Other chemicals such as phthalates, some of which are known to interfere with sexual reproduction, were found in most of the samples tested. One sample also contained a high level of chlorinated dioxins, known to promote cancer.

Dr. Kevin Bridgen, from our science unit, has visited scrap yards in China, India and Ghana: “Many of the chemicals released are highly toxic, some may affect children’s developing reproductive systems, while others can affect brain development and the nervous system. In Ghana, China and India, workers, many of them children, may be substantially exposed to these hazardous chemicals.”

How does it get to Ghana?

Containers filled with old and often broken computers, monitors and TVs – from brands including Philips, Canon, Dell, Microsoft, Nokia, Siemens and Sony – arrive in Ghana from Germany, Korea, Switzerland and the Netherlands under the false label of “second-hand goods”. Exporting e-waste from Europe is illegal but exporting old electronics for ‘reuse’ allows unscrupulous traders to profit from dumping old electronics in Ghana. The majority of the containers’ contents end up in Ghana’s scrap yards to be crushed and burned by unprotected workers. Some traders report that to get a shipping container with a few working computers they must accept broken junk like old screens in the same container from exporters in developed countries.

What’s the solution?

While working computers and mobile phones can have a new lease of life in some African countries, they create pollution when thrown away due to the high levels of toxic chemicals they contain. This is why we are pressuring the biggest electronic companies to phase out toxic chemicals and introduce global recycling schemes. Both of these steps are vital to tackle the growing tide of toxic e-waste.

Some companies are making progress towards taking responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products. However, Philips and Sharp stand out for refusing to accept that they are responsible for recycling their old products. The stance of these powerful multinationals is ensuring there will always be a digital divide that they prefer remains hidden, a dangerous divide with unprotected workers in developing countries left with the toxic legacy.

Source: GREENPEACE

The outbreak of Swine Flu in parts of the world will not pose any threat to the country, the Veterinary Services Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, has assured the public. Speaking to the Times yesterday on Ghana’s state of preparedness against any possible outbreak, the acting Director of the Department, Dr Enoch Boye-Mensah Koney said there is a surveillance system in place that conducts routine exercises along the country’s entry points.

In the exercise, live or dressed birds and animals imported into the country are critically examined and those suspected of having flu are vaccinated.

Dr Koney said the main job of the department is to control and prevent animal diseases that are likely to be introduced into country, adding that this core function enjoins it to be proactive in its surveillance, monitoring and evaluation roles.

“We have surveillance system that will detect anything within our territory in the shortest possible time,” he said.

Besides the department collaborates with the port authorities, the Customs Excise and Preventive Service, the Ghana Immigration Service, Ministry of Health as well as the Wildlife Department among other agencies, to constantly check, particularly, people entering the country.

At the entry points, he said, any person detected with flu would be quickly treated to avoid any possible transmission, according to Dr Koney.

“As we speak now the disease is not in the country and as our core function we are determined to prevent any outbreak in the country,” he said.

From next week, he said the department will conduct surveillance along the Ghana Cote D’Ivoire border as part of its routine exercises against such outbreaks.

Dr Koney dispelled public fears that those who eat pork could be infected, saying the disease could be transmitted if one came into contact with infected pigs or through a viral infected air.

He said that explains why schools have been closed down and other public places banned in countries experiencing the flu.

Swine influenza is an acute and highly contagious respiratory disease of swine caused by orthomyxiovirus.

In Mexico, over 80 people are reported dead from the disease and the United States, New Zealand, France, China, Russia and Taiwan have begun planning to put anyone with the symptom of the deadly virus under quarantine.

Source: The Ghanaian Times