Health facilities in the Upper West Region recorded 238,340 cases of diseases that are mostly caused by poor sanitation, which were treated at a total cost of about GH¢8.6 million last year.
There were 208,309 cases of malaria alone of which about GH¢7 million was spent on its treatment while GH¢1.6 million went into the treatment of 29,494 cases of acute respiratory infections and 10,537 diarrhoeal cases.
Alhaji Abu Yahaya, Chairman of the Upper West Regional Health Committee made this known when he chaired the closing session of a one-week course for Sanitation Guards drawn from the Wa Municipal, Wa East, Wa West and Sissala East Districts at Wa.
Alhaji Yahaya wondered how the country could achieve its development goals when diseases that were 90 percent preventable could be allowed to cause havoc to its citizenry and reduce productivity.
He called on the government to inject more resources into the sanitation sector.
The Sanitation Guards would assist Environmental Health Officers in hygiene education and promotion, premise inspection, dissemination of information on sanitation and supervision and monitoring of sanitation services.