The Central Regional Minister, Mr. Ekow Panyin Eduamoah, has urged churches and mosques to integrate cleanliness and behavioural change into their sermons to support the fight against cholera.
“We want the pastors and imams to take a prominent role in the education, and all other institutions must come on board. That is the only way we can get the information to the people,” he appealed.
He made the call during a tour of several communities in Cape Coast to assess the sanitation situation following a cholera outbreak in parts of the region.
During his visit, Mr. Eduamoah also stopped at the Cape Coast Metro Hospital, where he met some cholera patients at the treatment centre.
His tour revealed alarming sanitation issues in communities such as Brofoyedur and Amanful, where open defecation and choked gutters were widespread. Many households had connected their toilet facilities directly to open drains, which were clogged with silt and plastic waste. The seashore had also become a dumping ground and an open defecation site.
Compounding the crisis is an acute water shortage in the affected areas. The Minister and his team observed people cooking and selling food near heavily contaminated gutters.
Shocked by the situation, Mr Eduamoah directed the relevant authorities to take immediate action to improve sanitation and prevent further spread of the disease. He expressed concern over the economic impact of the outbreak, emphasizing that poor sanitation posed a significant threat to the government’s development agenda.
He also tasked the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly with deploying water tankers to supply clean water to residents, as access to safe water is critical in curbing the cholera outbreak.
