ZOOMLION TRAINS 100 SANITATION GUARDS (PAGE 29)

SANITATION giant, Zoomlion, in conjunction with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, has organised a four-day training programme for 100 sanitation guards in the Kumasi Metropolis.
The programme was to sharpen their skills in the implementation of sanitation programmes in the metropolis.
The guards, who constituted part of the National Youth Employment programme (NYEP), have been assisting environmental health officers in carrying out their duties.
The participants were the first batch of 370 sanitation guards who would be trained by Zoomlion in the Ashanti Region by the middle of June, this year, to enable them to play significant roles in environmental sanitation in the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs).
Under the decentralisation programme, environmental health officers have been posted to the MMDAs but their number is not adequate to meet the challenges in their respective areas.
The need to recruit sanitation guards to complement the efforts of the environmental officers therefore was crucial in order to meet the sanitation goals of the ministry.
After successfully piloting the programme at Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region, it was replicated in other areas.
Among the topics treated at the workshop were duties of the environmental and sanitation unit, public education on sanitation, detection of nuisance, and structures within the environmental and sanitation unit.
In an interview after the opening ceremony, the Zonal Coordinator of Zoomlion in Kumasi, Mr S. Gyekye-Darko, said the sanitation guards were permanently employed and as such they needed all the support to enable them to improve their performance.
He also stressed the need to intensify public education on sanitation because of the apathetic attitude of many of the people to matters relating to sanitation.
Mr Gyekye-Darko said the services of the sanitation guards were tailored to suit areas such as churches, lorry stations and schools.
He described the whole programme as one of the best to happen to the MMDAs, because apart from helping to make the environment clean, it would also serve as an employment avenue for the youth.
Resource persons for the workshop were drawn from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Other officials who participated in the workshop included Mr J.Y. Donkor, the Metropolitan Environmental Health Officer, and Mr Sekyere Boateng, the Ashanti West Zonal Officer for Zoomlion, who is also a postgraduate student at the KNUST.