The second edition of the nationwide clean up exercise, dubbed National Sanitation Day (NSD) has ended across the country amid concerns of low participation and poor publicity.

The exercise began early this morning across the country with a handful of people coming out to clean their communities despite participation by top government officials – including the President.

Joy News’ Kwetey Nartey toured some suburbs of Accra and reports that most people were unconcerned about the clean-up exercise.

Market women around these areas were busily selling their wares and were not concerned about the exercise.

Some people Kwetey spoke to blamed the situation on the poor publicity given the exercise saying that if they were aware, they would have joined in the clean-up.

But others said they did not want to wait until the national sanitation day before cleaning their communities because they do that all the time.

The situation was not different in the Ashanti Region where President Mahama joined residents to clean the streets.

Addressing residents there, the President commended those who had come out to participate in the clean-up and encouraged them to continue to participate in it to ensure clean environments.

Government launched the NSD as part of renewed measures to deal with the country’s sanitation problems.

Meanwhile civil society group Truth & Accountability Forum is asking local government minister to come out with how much is being spent on the nationwide clean up exercise.

The group’s spokesperson Saka Salia said there is nothing in the 2015 budget which indicates how much money was spent on the exercise and parliament does not seem to know either.

He said their research indicates that about GHȻ3 million is being spent on each national sanitation day and therefore does not see why it should be kept a secret.