The Unposted Environmental Health Officers and Assistants Association of Ghana [ UEHOA ] has expressed a deep concern over the cholera outbreak in country.
The associated which consist of over 3 batches of qualified and licensed health trainees has since not seen any green light on their postings especially in this trying times of a cholera outbreak where their services are more needed.
In a statement, the association extended condolences to affected families and urged the government to take urgent steps to curb the spread of the disease.
With several 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.
UEHOA has since criticized the 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.
Spokes Person for the group, Mr. Fred Atinga reinstated that “For over four and a half years, graduates from the three schools of hygiene in Ghana have been left unemployed, despite our extensive training and readiness to contribute to the nation’s environmental health,” the statement emphasized.
The group held the government responsible for the crisis, attributing it to the lack of political will to transform Environmental Health units into a full-fledged authority. Without proper investment in sanitation and waste management, they warned, Ghana would continue to experience recurring disease outbreaks.
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 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.