The National Service Scheme (NSS) has deployed 2,000 National Service Persons (NSP) to a newly introduced Urban Sanitation Module.
They will be assigned to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the country to visit households collecting data on sanitation services delivery.
Provision of technological gadgets such as Ipads and tablets, as well as IT terminals will be made to the 2000 personnel within their assigned jurisdictions to aid their field data collection. The module is a joint collaboration among the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the National Waste bin Distribution Programme (NaWaBin), Melchia Investments Ghana Limited (MIGL) and NSS.
Dr Michael Kpessa Whyte, the Executive Director of NSS, noted that the decision to deploy national service persons to the module was necessitated when the president announced last year that free waste bin should be distributed to all households.
In an address delivered on his behalf, the President of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA), Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, stated that the objective of the module is to strengthen local government planning through the mobilization of NSP to support MMDAs by performing tasks directed at effective and efficient local development.
This he said, will include community maps and data collection support for revenue collection, community mobilization, property rate, sanitation, public catering and hygiene inspection, public education, building permit inspection and street naming among others.
Mr Joseph Siaw Agyapong said “We at ESPA are very excited about this new innovation which will go a long way to address some of the challenges which include client data, poor revenue collection, poor route planning, inefficient logistics deployment and revenue leakages”.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of MIGL, Captain Amo Twum, stated that one of the major challenges impeding efficient and effective waste collection in the country is the absence of a credible data base for households in the country that can provide the platform for waste delivery and the collection of revenue from subscribers of these services.
He said it is for these facts that make MIGL believes that introducing improved logistics into the waste management sector with IT solutions support would significantly help to deal with the challenges identified.
“It will reduce the creation of refuse heaps by the roadside and further prevent the perennial flooding that results from garbage choking our drains during rainfall and reduce the breeding of houseflies” he added.
The Chief Executive of the La Nkwantanag –Madina Municipal Assembly, Mr Franklin Anku indicated that the module would also capture information on structure and household’s composition as well as Global Positioning System (GPS) locations of all structures to enable effective planning of all sectors of the economy.
He advised that NSP to take the programme seriously and act as ambassadors to promote its success.
<<Print>>