The Minister, speaking at the launch of the Greater Kumasi Sanitation and Water Project, eulogised Wutah’s efforts in sanitation with a plaque.

Recall Afriyie Wutah composed a song he titled ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’ to campaign against indiscriminate public defecation.

His song was endorsed by the sector as it launches its initiative to provide toilet facilities and expand water distribution to eligible low-income households to minimise open defecation.

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This was after Education Minister Dr Mathew Opoku-Prempeh acknowledged thousands of basic schools in Ghana have no toilet facility and charged the sector to do better.

Their latest protest is to express displeasure in the government for failing to stick to their promises in their earlier negotiations on July 20, of paying them off gradually till after elections.

The students have turned deaf ears to the Sanitation Ministry’s plea and are demanding immediate payment of their allowances whch have been forfeited since 2017.

In response, the Ministry says it is constituting a committee to facilitate the release of the monies.

But, the students, who came carrying mattresses, buckets and gas cylinders say they will not leave until their allowances are paid.

The final year students have as well boycotted their exiting exam and will only write if the backlog of GHC 9,600.00 is paid to each of them.

Final year students of the Ghana School of Hygiene (GSH) on Tuesday picketed the Ministry of Sanitation and Water resources to demand unpaid allowances.

This comes after the students boycotted their final examination which was set to take place on Monday, July 20.

To register their displeasure in over three years of unpaid allowances, the GSH wings in Tamale and Ho joined colleagues at Korle-Bu, Accra to demonstrate.

Clad in their uniforms, they had red bands on their head and hands, they vowed they were not vacating the premises until they received their allowances.

The angry students wielded placards with inscriptions such as ‘No long talks’, ‘We need our Money’ among others as they chant songs.

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“President Akufo-Addo assured us he was going to pay the allowances in 2017 but that is yet to see the light of day and all attempts to engage the sector minister have proved futile,” leader of the group lamented.

He added: “To prove we are serious about this, we brought our mattresses and buckets here and we are going to stay till we get the financial clearance.”

He stressed they no longer trust the sector minister regarding promises of payment since that has cost most of their colleagues their education.

“Most of our colleagues had to drop out because they could not fund their education due to the unpaid allowances and others owe school fees worth GHS 5,000.”

Watch the video attached above:

The Sanitation and Water Resources Ministry in carrying out the directive has charged health facilities with special emphasis on designated hospitals such as Tema General Hospital to do away with things that ordinarily would waste treated water.

Deputy Sanitation and Water Resources Minister, Michael Gyato on a visit to Tema General Hospital which has an isolation centre for the outbreak told the facility to use water judiciously.

“In times like these, you wouldn’t want to waste treated water which is one of the most essentials in a pandemic. There is also the need to have a reservoir to store enough water as power outage can disrupt supply,” he said.

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The Deputy Minister who visited the hospital with officials of Ghana Water Company Ltd (GWCL) was to familiarize himself with challenges of the facility regarding water supply.

The caution to conserve water is however not limited to health facilities but the general public as well.

He did not rule out possible rationing by GWCL to be able to serve all customers.

Mr Gyato encouraged management of Tema General Hospital to get additional water storage to the existing one.

Meanwhile, management of the Tema General Hospital assured it is putting in place internal measures to augment sources including water from its boreholes.