Curbing waste-related diseases: NW Regional Assembly, eBASE Africa train health practitioners, youth.

This was the focus of a one-day training workshop, organised by the North West Regional Assembly, NWRA, in partnership with international charity organisation, Effective Basic Services Africa, eBASE Africa.

The training took place Thursday March 14, in Bamenda. It was presided by the President of the North West Regional Assembly, Prof Fru Angwafo III. 

Also present was the Team Lead of eBASE Africa, Dr Okwen Patrick, and the Commissioner for Health and Social Development at the North West Regional Assembly, Dr Yaa Sakah Lydia. Participants of the workshop were selected from all 34 Subdivisions of the Region.

The President of the North West Regional Assembly, Prof Fru Angwafo III, in his speech, acknowledged that the training will spur more trainings and initiatives to change the narrative in the region.

Prof Fru Angwafo III added that the health practitioners and youth sanitary officers will be accompanied to fully work for the betterment of their communities.

"We thought that citizens participation and the bottom-up approach is a better way to have the communities take ownership of their various health issues. I think these actors are the most appropriate to engage in keeping our communities clean, healthy and free of waste-related diseases," he said.

On his part, the Team Lead of eBASE Africa, Dr Okwen Patrick, disclosed that poor waste management can cause communicable as well as non-communicable diseases like malaria, lungs problems, typhoid and others.

"Waste-related diseases, based on data that we have, make up to about 38% of communicable diseases in the North West Region. If we can improve the way we manage our waste, then we could reduce like four out of ten communicable diseases in the region," Dr Okwen said.

The training focused on solid waste management, role of actors on communicable diseases from waste disposal, and data for decision-making.

Tawasi Rodrick of eBASE Africa drilled the participants on types of waste, sources of waste and how to manage waste.

According to Tawasi, waste can be generated from households, industries and agriculture. He added that it is important to manage waste in order to reduce greenhouse gases and secure the planet for the future generations.

On his part, Dr Bihle Nestor presented the role that key actors have to play to mitigate waste management. He also spoke on the various types of diseases that the communities are exposed to and how they can be managed.

The participants were called upon to use data and research to improve on the way waste is managed in an attempt to reduce the number of waste-related diseases. They shall also identify the problems and report to authorities for immediate actions to be taken.

At the end of the training, various recommendations were arrived at, including the transformer of waste at the industrial level, ensuring waste is well sorted out at household level, creation of waste disposal sites, among others.