Is this proposed sanitation law the solution?
Last weekend, something an environmental expert said about the National Sanitation Day (NSD) brought it back into the headlines. The expert has reportedly cautioned the government not to rush to enact a law to make participation in the NSD compulsory.
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His advice was music to my ears!
Dr Bob Offei Manteaw, described as an Environment and Development expert, told the Ghana News Agency that the NSD needs a review.
In his opinion, the policy has not been successful in achieving its main objective of creating awareness and instilling a sanitation culture in the citizenry. Even though well-intended, the programme lacks what it needs “to promote long-term social behavioural changes in the citizenry”.
The NSD, which takes place every first Saturday of the month, was launched in November, 2014, mainly as a response to the cholera epidemic. Reportedly, it was also a response to Ghana being listed by the UN as one of the 10 dirtiest countries in the world.
In July last year, then Deputy Minister of Local Government, Nii Lantey Vanderpuije, was quoted as saying that Parliament would soon pass a Bill into law making it a punishable offence not to participate in the NSD.
Dr Manteaw said the fact that insanitary conditions persist immediately after cleaning the communities, is ample proof that “nothing has changed or is changing”.
He “cautioned the government to be circumspect in its desire to back the NSD with a law to make it mandatory”. Any military-style posturing to compel people to clean their environment would not be sustainable in changing people and society for the longer term.
Instead, the government should be “committed to ensuring and enforcing existing sanitation regulations and backing that with a well-planned education and social marketing campaign.”
In his view, the idea should not be about getting people to clean their environment to satisfy some law; people must be made to learn, know and understand the importance and the need to live in a clean and healthy environment. He also cited the importance of funding and the government working with stakeholders.
His caution about the proposed law struck a chord with me because, like him, I don’t think that a militarist approach will solve the problem. Indeed, I expressed that view in this space last year.
On April 10, 2015, under the headline, ‘A national service that’s too much to ask!’ I pointed out that clearly not everybody felt committed to the NSD.
“Obviously, the launch of a national offensive against the widespread filth was a necessary emergency action because of the cholera outbreaks”. However, I argued: “the NSD’s long-term prospects, as an activity attracting sustained, maximum participation were, and continue to be, doubtful.”
But I’m not so sure about Dr Manteaw’s “education and social marketing” recommendation.
For, can it be true that Ghanaians are dirty by nature? Who is really to blame for the filthy environment? From time immemorial, it has been a standard practice for houses to be swept at the crack of dawn and the household rubbish taken to the garbage dump. However, beyond the house compounds, the other parts of the community are supposed to be taken care of by the local assembly.
The assembly in turn has the duty of seeing to it that the communal dumps are regularly cleared. But have the assemblies been doing their work conscientiously? Would the proposed law punish the responsible assembly officials, too?
Furthermore, as I asked last year, “a fundamental question prompted by the launch of the NSD is: Why do we have to do the cleaning ourselves when our taxes are supposed to pay for such services?
“And if the local assemblies are not getting the necessary funds from central government to carry out their duties, as some have suggested, why is that so?
Other points highlighted in the April 10, 2015 article included:
“Now there is talk in some quarters of the need for a law to back the NSD, to compel people to participate, but how realistic would that be? For, clearly, with such a law, there would be the need for a body for its enforcement nationwide. So then would that be an additional duty for the already overstretched police?
“Or would money now be found to train more sanitary inspectors – when many of those already trained with taxpayers’ money are reportedly still waiting to be employed?”
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I also asked: “why are the teeming numbers of jobless people not being employed to take care of sanitation? In our crisis situation can we afford to rely on a monthly NSD to solve the problem? Sanitation is a priority and the money must be found for that!
“Wouldn’t it be simpler, more pragmatic, for the government to help Zoomlion to bounce back so that it could be contracted to take the lead again in keeping the country clean?”
“The NSD should be viewed as an emergency response to the sanitation crisis. It should not replace a dedicated waste management programme.”
I’m still convinced that, as I noted in that article, “solving the sanitation problem (should) not have to depend on a once-a-month citizens’ goodwill gesture, with thoughts now turning to practically dragooning people into participating.
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“How do other countries manage their sanitation without having to ask taxpayers to do the work their taxes are supposed to pay for?
“For, judging from the reportedly fast dwindling enthusiasm, even if this kind of ‘national service’ is only once a month it’s still viewed as too much to ask.”
Reports of the general apathy towards the NSD, not to mention the evidence everywhere of gutters still choked with rubbish and the littered environment, point to the need for a more realistic approach: daily cleaning by full-time employees and efficient disposal of the rubbish.
A monthly NSD could complement a daily cleaning programme; it should not be the solution. Neither should it be a kind of forced labour.
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So the way I see it, it’s NO! to a National Sanitation Day law; but YES! to full-time sanitary employees working every day.
(ajoayeboahafari@yahoo.com)
This article was published in the Friday, February 19, 2016 edition of The Mirror