Jerry Yao Ameko, Adaklu District Chief Executive (DCE) Tuesday warned that under his watch, the district would not be a safe haven for environmental degradation.  

“Environmental protection and sanitation issues in the district are therefore non-negotiable,” he stated.  

Mr Ameko called on residents of the district to see environmental protection as a shared civic responsibility rather than an isolated governmental intervention.  

“The culture of environmental responsibility should be rooted in local ownership,” he noted.  

Mr Ameko gave the warning in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in reaction to reports of the flooding of parts of the Volta region following a heavy rainfall on Monday, September 29.  

He called on Assembly members, traditional and religious leaders to be proactive and put community-embedded mechanisms in place to safeguard the neatness of their communities, rivers and wetlands  

He intimated that when communities were engulfed with filth and rivers polluted, communities suffered and generations compromised  

Mr Ameko who is also the Dean of Volta region MDCEs, reminded the Blue Water Guards operating in the district that their work would not only be measured by the arrests they made or the reports they filed but also by the clearer streams and healthier ecosystems.  

“Rivers are not abstract resources but the bloodstream of agriculture, the foundation of public health, the anchor of livelihoods and guarantor of future prosperity so they need to be protected,” he said.  

Mr Ameko entreated Environmental Health Officers operating in the district to rigidly enforce the Assembly’s sanitation bylaws no matter whose ox was gored.  

He urged traditional authorities to continue observing the national sanitation day and report those who flout the directive to the Assembly.  

The DCE said with the onset of the rains, communities should desilt their gutters and also weed their surroundings to safeguard them from floods and diseases.  

“A clean community is a healthy community,” he stated.  

Mr Ameko commended President John Dramani Mahama for initiating the National Sanitation Day adding that the millions of Ghana Cedis spent on drugs by government could be channeled into other productive ventures if the country was clean and healthy.