National Sanitation Day: Let’s make it work this time
President John Dramani Mahama last Saturday relaunched the National Sanitation Day, renewing a call for citizens to take ownership of the environment. Under the government’s ‘’Clean up Ghana” agenda, the exercise is intended to nurture responsibility, improve public health and enhance the aesthetics of our towns and cities.
The initiative is not new as it was first introduced in September 2014 under the leadership of then Local Government Minister Julius Debrah, it mobilised Ghanaians on the first Saturday of each month to clean their surroundings.
Sadly, momentum ebbed after 2017 and its revival presents another chance, but only if we refuse to repeat the missteps of the past. Ideally, a nation should not require a designated day to clear filth it creates.
Cleanliness must be a daily practice just as the President emphasised. Indeed the success or failure of the programme depends on all of us, regardless of politics or social status. Far too many well-intentioned national efforts collapse because of needless partisanship.
Our three major faith traditions, Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religion uphold cleanliness. “You cannot be a godly person if you live in filth,” the President rightly reminded us.
Yet we continue to see refuse tossed into drains, indiscriminate dumping during rains, polluted water bodies and degraded lands. Such habits are reckless and self-defeating. Examples abound elsewhere.
In Singapore, dropping even a chewing gum attracts instant sanction, not because its people are superior but because laws are enforced and citizens are conscious of their environment. Ghana must show similar resolve.
We welcome the President’s commitment to inculcate good habits in the young. Proverbs 22:6 reminds us that if we “train a child in the way he should go,” he will not depart from it.
Early, sustained environmental education is vital if we are to change attitudes permanently. In the interim, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies must rigorously enforce their bylaws against littering.
Courts must apply sanctions without fear or favour to create deterrence while government too, must ensure that waste gathered during clean-ups is promptly collected and provide adequate bins at strategic points to eliminate excuses for dumping.
To our political class, environmental health knows no colour. Cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid strike without regard for party card. On sanitation, unity is the only sensible option.
The Ghanaian Times urges every citizen to see the National Sanitation Day not as a ritual but as a reflection of civic duty. If we truly desire a cleaner, healthier and sustainable Ghana, we must make cleanliness an everyday ethic, not an afterthought.
This time, let us make it work for ourselves and for generations to come.