The Southern Coordinator of the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) has called on the government to abolish the National Sanitation Day exercise conducted across the country.

Benjamin Lartey said the exercise has been proven unnecessary and untimely because of the absence of key logistics essential for its success.

In November 2014, the Ministry of Local Government announced the first Saturday of every month as a day for clean-up exercises across the country to address issues of worst cholera outbreaks in Ghana.

However, Lartey said the exercise should be scrapped because it demonstrates the absence of adequate preparation on the part of government.

According to him, his outfit has observed that willing people come out to participate in the exercise only to realize there are no tools to get the exercise underway.

“What is even much more heartbreaking is that just after a day of cleaning, the next two days the same drainage that was cleared is choked”, he said.

He said these issues have kept people apathetic to the exercise.

He also questioned the financial commitment of the government saying “Where is the national budget for this exercise?”

He intimated the exercise would be given a boost if the government channels resources to local authorities.

Public Relations officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Numo Blafo III, however, disagreed, saying the exercise is important for the health of the nation.

“We are not expecting people to go [out] and do any extraordinary things but the ordinary things they do every day in cleaning their homes and surroundings”, he said.

He said the AMA has put in some measures to harness the efforts of the residents of Accra to ensure that the city is kept clean days after the exercise is conducted.

Numo Blafo entreated people to take pictures of uncollected and heaped rubbish and send them to Vodafone number 020 793 53 81.

He advised the residents to come out in their numbers to help clean the city today, March 5, 2016.

 

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