We must ensure sustainable sanitation practices

Last Saturday, September 13, saw the relaunch of the National Sanitation Day and campaign by President John Mahama, to whip up the enthusiasm of the public towards the observance of good sanitation practices.

If the sanitation campaign becomes successful, as a people we would not only be ensuring a cleaner environment, but we would also stay away from sanitation-related diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery, among others, which continue to increase the country’s disease burden.

Further, the economy of our cities and towns will receive a boost with more tourist arrivals, both local and foreign. Everybody likes to visit a place that has aesthetic beauty and is clean.

Indeed, it is the beauty of cities abroad that attracts Ghanaians on holiday to visit those places and sightsee, and we can replicate that here if we take sanitation issues seriously.

Nonetheless, we are found wanting when it comes to good sanitation because most of us have become accustomed to living in unkempt surroundings, and no one takes anyone on if a person is found to be littering a place.

Dare to correct someone discarding waste with careless abandon, and one is bound to be met with very stiff opposition.

While the Daily Graphic is excited that the National Sanitation Day has been relaunched to draw the attention of the populace to the need to observe good sanitation, we believe that we must ask ourselves why the previous campaigns failed.

Ensuring sanitary surroundings does not come cheap and is not a one-day job.

It is a continuous exercise, and this is why the Daily Graphic is of the view that we must look for sustainable ways of ensuring cleanliness everywhere, all year round.  

We are speaking the same language as President Mahama, who relaunched the National Sanitation Day with a call for sustained and collective efforts to confront sanitation challenges head-on, “to keep our cities and towns clean”.

Observing the first Saturday of every month as National Sanitation Day, while a good initiative which is part of the “Clean Up Ghana” agenda under the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, it does not hold the magic wand for a clean environment every day.

We need to conscientise schoolchildren as part of civic education and adults who have become accustomed to littering, as well as ensure the enforcement of by-laws.

The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) must also be resourced to sensitise and educate the public.

Human beings, by nature, would not exhibit discipline in certain spheres until they know that they are obliged by law to do so.

We must inculcate in our children the good habit of keeping food wrappers or disposable packaging materials till they see a waste receptacle.

Better still, it is high time we practised waste sorting at source – paper, organic, plastics and glass.

A child who sees the parents discarding waste from a moving vehicle or anywhere and empties the bladder at the roadside or behind someone’s wall is bound to do the same when he or she grows up, believing that it is alright to do so.

Community members must be empowered to report anyone found desecrating the environment.

We are all in this if we want to enjoy a clean environment across the country.

Elsewhere, waste bins are cleaned regularly, but over here, once a bin is designated as one for waste, it is left to become so disgusting that it becomes unattractive to dispose of waste in it.

Most of our waste compactor trucks wear out very quickly because washing or cleaning them is out of the question, and they give off a putrid and unbearable stench.

As echoed by the Minister of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Ahmed Ibrahim, the National Sanitation Day is not just a clean-up exercise but a "renewed social contract between government and citizens, anchored on accountability, enforcement, and sustainability."

We find the plan by the ministry to establish a dedicated sanitation hotline for citizens to report public cleansing nuisances, a central dashboard to track assembly performance, and the requirement of monthly sanitation reports from all MMDAs as laudable, but they must be followed through.

We must restore discipline and pride in public spaces by practising cleanliness.

After all, cleanliness, it is said, is next to godliness.