Unposted EHOs blame gov’t for the cholera outbreak…demand immediate posting
Unposted EHOs blame gov't for the cholera outbreak...demand immediate posting
Members of the Unposted Environmental Health Officers and Assistants Association of Ghana are demanding immediate posting after years of coming out of school.
According to them, for over four and a half years, graduates from the three schools of hygiene in Ghana have been left unemployed, despite their extensive training and readiness to contribute to the nation’s environmental health.
The group in statement, criticized the past government’s failure to recruit trained environmental health officers, leaving thousands of graduates from the country’s three schools of hygiene unemployed for over four years.
The group has, however, held the governments after governments responsible for the cholera outbreak across some communities in the Greater Accra, Central, and Western regions of Ghana.
Blaming years of neglect in the environmental health sector, the Association pointed to poor sanitation as a key factor in the surge of preventable diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and malaria.
They attributed the recent cholera outbreak to the lack of political will to transform Environmental Health units into a full-fledged authority. Without proper investment in sanitation and waste management, cautioning that Ghana would continue to experience recurring disease outbreaks.
They, however, expressed deep concern over the ongoing cholera outbreak, which has claimed several lives since October 24, 2024.
Members of the Association again extended their heartfelt condolences to affected families and urged the government to take urgent steps to curb the spread of the disease.
They acknowledged the recent proposal by the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development to upgrade the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate into an authority, but urged swift action rather than mere political rhetoric.
“This should not 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.
