National Sanitation Day Exercise waning

The interest in embarking on the National Sanitation Day exercise appears to be waning Joy News has learnt.

There has been a significant drop in the number of people who take part in the exercise which is undertaken on the first Saturday of every month.

The situation is no different this Saturday.

Joy News’ Derrick Ekow Sam who visited some residents of Ghana’s largest slum, Nima, reported the residents as losing interest in the exercise.

Some of the residents complained that when they clean the gutters the rubbish is left on the shoulders of the streets which eventually enter the gutters again.

There is therefore no incentive to continue cleaning the gutters, they pointed out.

In Cape Coast, the situation is even worse. Central Region correspondent Richard Kojo Nyarko reported there was heap of rubbish at some places in the regional capital even on the day of exercise.

He said there is no sign of people cleaning the area on the National Sanitation Day.

There is also open defecation into gutters around the regional capital, he mentioned.

Meanwhile Local Government expert George Kyei Baffuor is not surprised about the decrease in patronage.

He said the programme is only going to be successful if it is a stop gap measure and not something that must be done continuously.