Ghanaians have become so used to filth that they feel it is a part of their societal fabric.

People who live around the coastal areas move from their various homes to defecate on the sea shore.

The sea, which generates income for other economies, has become the channel through which revenue is lost as a result of the activities of the people who are supposed to benefit from it.

Open defecation and dumping of refuse into the sea has become the norm.

Visits to the coastal line will reveal that people have become used to defecating in the open because “my father’s fathers’ father used this place as a toilet ground.”

More irking are statements like “it is nice when you defecate around the beaches and the wind that blows around your buttocks is so refreshing.”

This situation is not peculiar to our coastal lines alone. The hinterlands and other areas that have no access to the sea also indulge in these acts.

How do we remedy the situation?

Does the media have a role to play in reverting Ghana to its clean state?

Thank God there is a channel through which all these anomalies could be corrected.

In association with STAR-Ghana, Joy News, Multi TV brings to our cherished viewers, ‘Clean Communities’, a program geared towards getting things done right.

The program was officially launched on May 2, 2014 at Kaklamdu, La.

Speaking at the launch of the program, the Chief Operating Officer of Multimedia Group Limited, Klaus Von Backustein, who officially launched the program, said “as we embark on this journey, we ask for your support to create the impact that will change lives and have a positive impact on the health burden in Ghana.”

He added “we want to see an end to littered streets, soiled beaches and I challenge every Ghanaian to get involved in fighting the filth in our community. As a media organization, we are committed to providing our platforms to discuss and debate the challenges that we face in our communities. I want the fishermen to catch fish and not fecal matter and plastics. We want to see our hospitals relieved of sick children with ailments which are preventable”.

The Deputy Programmes Manager of STAR-Ghana, sponsors of the program, Mary Tobin Osei in her speech disclosed their reason for embarking on this journey.

“We are very much aware that the media fraternity has a mandate according to the laws of our land to ensure that government accounts to citizens and to ensure that there is transparency in the land. For us at STAR-Ghana, we see the potential of this program to go far beyond the selected communities and the sanitation sector of Ghana”.

Rita Odoley Sowah, the Municipal Chief Executive of the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly (LADMA) tasked Ghanaians to be each other’s keeper in our various communities.

“As believers and people with one vision, we need to ensure that when see people littering around, we need to tell them that it is not good to litter the community. Let us ensure that our communities are clean.”

‘CLEAN COMMUNITIES’ AIRS ON JOY NEWS, MULTI TV THIS AND EVERY FRIDAY AT 7PM.