For years, the country has been battling with ways to ensure proper waste disposal.
This has been aggravated by the consistent flouting of sanitation laws and the inability to enforce the numerous by-laws on sanitation promulgated by metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs).
It was, therefore, just a matter of time for the country to suffer the consequences of our actions and inaction.
Years ago, it was sanitary inspectors, known in local parlance as “Saman Saman”, who kept any form of sanitation-related calamity at bay.
With time, however, the important role played by the sanitary inspectors to compel people to live responsibly and thus prevent catastrophes such as what the country is experiencing now has been downplayed.
Whereas the current crop of inspectors complain that they are few and so are overwhelmed by the work, many trained health inspectors are still unemployed.
This paradox, and the fact that the inspectors lack adequate implements, including means of transport to facilitate access to the field, have contributed to the degeneration of sanitary conditions across the country.
All these have contributed to the most fatal cholera outbreak in the country’s history, claiming over 150 lives in four months and affecting over 18,000 people during the period.
Some of those whose lives have been cut short were the breadwinners of their families and most of them were in the productive age group.
This suggests that the country’s productivity has been hampered by overstretched health facilities and staff as a result of the disease.
Although sanitation courts have been established in some jurisdictions in Accra, we need to step up the setting up of such courts in all the regions.
That way, prosecuting sanitation offenders will not only be limited to a few MMDAs but will be treated as a national matter.
It will also ensure that the impact the courts are expected to make through adherence to common and simple sanitation rules is felt nationwide
The Daily Graphic, therefore, supports the call by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, for the reintroduction of the sanitation courts concept – and it must be nationwide.
Reckless living and the careless discarding of waste into drains and unauthorised areas must no longer be condoned.
The severest of punishments and the most prohibitive forms of fines must be meted out to those who litter with careless abandon and those who steal receptacles provided for waste generated by the public.
We need to ensure that those who have developed the habit of throwing things around anyhow, openly defecating and destroying the environment do not go unpunished.
A reward system for those who help to apprehend abusers of the environment will also go a long way to deter people from doing the wrong thing.
It is time we all guarded jealously the beautiful environment that the Creator has given us in order to live healthy and long lives.
