Applaud to the Freetown City Council, but…

I have observed for the past few days, public health officers from Freetown City Council inspecting public places to ensure people have kept their vicinity clean. I was impressed by this initiative being implemented by the City Council hence my intent to put up this article to commend the Mayor and his staff for this campaign.

I will also like to present another worrying development the City Council must deal with.

If for nothing at all, it is my firm belief these inspections and subsequent sanctions against people who have untidy vicinity will educate the populace at the same time serve as a deterrent to others who allow their vicinities and places of work to be untidy.

This campaign is more apt because it will lessen the prevalence of diseases like cholera, typhoid, etc which are hygiene related. Hygiene related diseases are amongst the highly recorded health cases at the health facilities.

This campaign will reduce the already compounded pressure on the health facilities and government’s free health care policy. Resources which will otherwise be used to import more drugs and health equipment because of an outbreak can be channeled to other sectors of the economy, like education, roads, energy, etc.

While I commend the City Council for their campaign, I will like to appeal to them to keep this campaign as sustainable and persistent as possible. Being sustainable within a reasonable interval with the campaign will go a long in imbibing the sense of cleanliness amongst the populace.

The campaign will ensure a healthy Sierra Leone which will make the citizens more productive mentally and physically,  thus falling in line with the adage a “healthy mind lives in a healthy body”.

I will also like to bring to the attention of the Mayor and City Council, my observation on the conduct of some food vendors [cookery] in the city. I have realized some food vendors keep the least hygienic practices.

I have been in Sierra Leone for almost a year now and I have come to like a particular food, “aky3k3” (acheke). I have come to like “aky3k3” may be because of the gari content which is a common food where I come from. However, I have observed some food vendors keep the barest hygienic practice which has lessen my appetite for otherwise this tasty food. For instance, I was about to buy “aky3k3” on a particular day. What I saw was very disturbing. The food vendor took money from another customer after serving him, right after taking the money; the vendor dipped her hand which she used to take the money into the bowl of “aky3k3” to serve me. I was compelled to buy the “agy3k3” to avert any confrontation but I could not eat it.

It is unimaginable, the people, places and germs that get into contact with money. Let us just imagine a particular ten thousand leones (Le 10,000.00 note which has passed through the hands of a fish monger, a lawyer, an auto-mechanic, a doctor, “okada”, a taxi driver, a market woman, the bank and finally gets to the customer who in turn uses this same note to buy food from this food vendor. When this food vendor took the money with her hand, it was most expected that she would have washed her hands with soap before using that same hand to serve other customers like me. If this is not done, then it is only obvious that this food vendor is selling diseases and germs which she came in contact with on the Le 10,000.00 note.

The Freetown City Council must take this cleanliness campaign to food vendors all over the city. Some of these vendors might not be aware of the diseases and germs they are selling to unsuspecting customers. The Council should inspect the vicinities of these food vendors and assess their hygienic practices in cooking and serving food. Food vendors play important role in our lives by providing us with food. Any unhygienic food vendor can transmit more diseases and germs to the populace hence the need for their operations to be inspected and possibly certified.

In conclusion, I would like to once again commend the Freetown City Council for their cleanliness campaign and I will urge them to keep the campaign going. The council should set up a special campaign specifically for the food vendors in the city. The mass media is also a good medium that could be used to educate these food vendors. I believe a good hygienic food vendor will avert many hygienic related diseases.

I rest my pen!

Faisal Ibrahim, A Ghanaian in Freetown

The author is an Associate Member of the Association of Business Executives, UK. He is also a political activist and member of the opposition political party in Ghana, the New Patriotic Party.

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