The Tamale Metropolitan Assembly (TaMA) has rolled out a Faecal Sludge and Bulk Water Supply Monitoring System to increase household access to safe bulk water supply and pit emptying services in the metropolis.

With the system, households can now access sanitation and waste management services in the comfort of their homes through a mobile application, iCesspool-Tamale App, which can be accessed on Play Store or through a hotline.

Initiated by TaMA in collaboration with the iCesspool Services Limited, with support from UNICEF and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the system is expected to help address the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) challenges which have bedevilled the assembly for the past years.

It will also track sanitation services rendered to the public and operator routes within the city to ensure conformity with the sanitation by-laws of the assembly and eliminate the incidence of citywide indiscriminate dumping of faecal sludge.

Sanitation challenge

Launching the system in Tamale yesterday, the Metropolitan Chief Executive of Tamale, Sule Salifu, said the initiative would offer a unified solution to WASH challenges by linking households to receive safe pit emptying and bulk water supply services in the comfort of their homes, while exposing service providers to citywide customers through the mobile application.

He said the assembly had also installed a monitoring dashboard which had the database of all pit emptying trucks and water supply operators registered for service, and therefore, entreated the public to access the services via the iCesspool-Tamale App.

While acknowledging the immense support and contribution of the various partners towards improving the sanitation situation in the metropolis, he advised the residents to desist from engaging the services of sanitation agents who were not authorised by the assembly, as it was against the by-laws.

Cleaner city

For his part, the Director of Waste Management at TaMA, Martin Ahorlu, said communities were put at serious risk when both solid and liquid waste were not properly disposed of.

The Chief Executive Officer of iCesspool Services Limited, Dominic Aboagye, indicated that to ensure effective usage of the module, all service providers had been trained on the use of the online system to transact business.

 “The operators have agreed to relinquish 10 per cent of each service charge to the assembly to support environmental sanitation activities as well as the maintenance of the system.

We estimate that through this remittance, the assembly can rake in over GH¢150,000 every year to support sanitation and waste management activities.

SOURCE: GraphicOnline