Bolgatanga butchers appeal for abattoir.

Butchers in Bolgatanga has complained about poor sanitation conditions at the slaughter house, which has been engulfed by filth and flies. They said the present butchers' shop was too small and many of them sold their meat from open sheds, attracting a lot of flies. Mr Timothy Tinbil, Secretary of the Bolgatanga Butchers Association, who spoke on behalf of the members at a seminar on Sanitation appealed to the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly to build an abattoir for them. He urged the Assembly to speed up the opening of the renovated old market to enable them to use the butchers shop till the abattoir was built. Mr Tinbil said aside of the health hazard at the slaughter house, the place does not speak well of the town, as many tourists and other visitors openly see meat being sold under unhygienic conditions. The seminar, under the theme 'Clean Environment, Healthy people', attracted people from the private sector, butchers, chop bar operators, market women, drinking bar operators, women's associations and NGOs. The participants expressed their concern at the increasing number of people involved in surface mining who were pounding rocks and washing it out near homes in search of gold. They said the dust and mercury could affect the health of the people around and appealed to the Municipal Assembly to ban the practice.