Let assembly members own national sanitation day - Dr Samuel Sarpong
The Chief Executive Officer of the State Housing Company, Dr Samuel Sarpong has called on the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to resource assembly members across the country to take the lead role in the national monthly sanitation programme.
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He noted that the enthusiasm with which the programme started and saw the cleaning up of the country was waning with time and that the only feasible option to sustain and increase the momentum is to let the local people own the exercise through the leadership of their elected assembly members.
Dr Sarpong who previously served as the Ashanti Regional Minister and Chief Executive Officer of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) was speaking to the media last Saturday around the Santasi Roundabout in Kumasi where he had joined residents, some drivers at the local taxi rank and others from surrounding communities to clean the area on the occasion of national sanitation day.
"You will all agree with me that the momentum has actually dwindled and I want to implore the Ministry of Local Government to adopt a very feasible strategy to ensure that this great exercise is successful at all times. And I am suggesting that in every district, we charge the assembly member with tools to undertake the exercise.
"It seems nobody is in charge at most of the places and that is the reason why it looks like it is going down", Dr Sarpong added.
He explained that the national sanitation day, since its inception had contributed immensely to revive the communal spirit in the Ghanaian to clean their environment and rekindled their awareness to be conscious of the environment.
He noted that his reason for suggesting that assembly members be made to manage the exercise was because they could easily identify the filthy areas of their communities which needed urgent attention and could easily mobilize the people to address them.
Dr Sarpong who pledged to provide shelter for taxi drivers at the area also appealed to the drivers to keep their environment clean by providing dust bins in their vehicles and disposing of them at the designated places.
