Courts to try sanitation-related offences to be established soon – Minister

Mr. Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment on Wednesday said plans were far advanced to establish special courts that would prosecute sanitation-related offences.
He said the level of indiscipline in sanitation-related matters had reached such heights that if the culprits were not brought to book, the beauty of the cities would disappear and investments wasted.
"Road medians with vegetative cover have become the walk-way for some people, while others use them for the disposal of the rubbish,” he said.
“We all have to work to bring such attitudes to an end," he told participants at the opening of the second ArcGIS West Africa User Conference, which opened in Accra.
The ArcGIS conference is aimed at bringing participants to deliberate on the uses of geographic information systems in development agenda.
About 100 participants from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Sierra Leone are attending the two-day conference, which is under the theme, "Unlocking the Power of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Attaining Development Goals in West Africa".
Mr Boateng said the ability to view data in a spatial dimension was what had always made GIS a valuable tool in decision-making.
Praising the timeliness of the conference, he said Ghana and the entire sub-region were taking up diverse development projects that required the use of geographic information or geo-information and technology.
We need to encourage GIS professionals to explore how they could increase the application of GIS in all industries in our respective countries, Mr Boateng said.
"Despite the far reaching benefits of Geographic Information Systems, this technology, like many others, is not being full utilized in our West Africa sub-region.
"This has been caused by technological constraints, high resistance to operational changes and, of course, budget limitations."
Mr Boateng urged the participants to embrace better tools for planning, allocation and delivery of services.
"The fullest use of geographical or spatial information technology must be developed and deployed within our private and public agencies."
Mr Samuel Aboah, Chief Executive Officer of Sambus Company Limited, organizers of the workshop said the GIS industry in West Africa had all along been funded to the tune of 90 per cent by foreign grants and loans.
He therefore called on end users to support the industry since donor aid figures were falling substantially as most of the projects were coming to an end.
GNA