The Unposted Environmental Health Officers and Assistants Association of Ghana has raised alarm over the ongoing cholera outbreak, which has claimed several lives since October 24, 2024.
In a statement, the association extended condolences to affected families and urged the government to take immediate action to contain the disease.
Citing years of neglect in the environmental health sector, they blamed poor sanitation for the rise in preventable diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and malaria.
The association criticized the government for failing to recruit trained environmental health officers, leaving thousands of graduates from the country’s three schools of hygiene unemployed for over four years.
“For over four and a half years, graduates from Ghana’s three schools of hygiene have remained jobless despite being trained and ready to serve,” the statement stressed.
They held the government accountable for the crisis, citing a lack of political will to upgrade Environmental Health units into a full-fledged authority. Without proper investment in sanitation and waste management, they warned, Ghana would continue to face recurring disease outbreaks.
While acknowledging the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development’s recent proposal to transform the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate into an authority, the group urged swift implementation rather than political rhetoric.
“This shouldn’t be one of those political talks,” they cautioned, calling for the immediate employment of unposted environmental health officers to reinforce the overstretched workforce in the field.
Reaffirming their commitment to improving environmental health standards, the association demanded urgent government intervention to strengthen sanitation systems and prevent future public health emergencies.
