National Sanitation Day

The National Sanitation Day concept was instituted as part of measures to get the environment clean to prevent the repetition of the cholera epidemic that broke out in 2014. 

This initiative received a lot of hype at birth but the story is no longer the same. 

This is because the whole initiative was mooted at the national level and there has not been a link to ensure that the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) lead the way.

In an interview on GBC’s current affairs programme, Behind the News, former executive secretary of the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation,  Ben Arthur stated that the National Sanitation Day begun without the consideration of mechanisms to enhance its adoption and sustainability by the MMDAs. 
 
The above assertion reveals how this initiative has been focused only on the efforts of ministers and policy makers at the national level, an evidence of “top to downism”. 

The MMDAs are supposed to lead the way in issues that concern sanitation. 

The genesis of the filth that has engulfed cities and towns is a consequence of derelition of duty by the MMDAs. 
 
The MMDAs  collect revenues and they also have access to District Assemblies Common Fund which has provision for sanitation; therefore, it cannot be the lack of financial resources. 

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development must begin to put its acts together and ensure that MMDAs and the Environmental Health Directorate do not slack in performing a duty that they have been mandated to undertake.  

Sanitation is a crucial matter. 

It’s one of the development issues that have been specified in the Sustainable Development Goals, 2015. 

Sanitation is captured in Goal Six with its accompanied target of “ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. 

The only way to achieve this goal is to mount the needed pressure on MMDAs. 

The National Sanitation Day concept is a laudable idea; but is one thing having a laudable idea, and another, ensuring its implementation by the relevant agencies. 

Since its launch, the day has been graced by high ranking government officials. 

This trend  has not helped its sustainability; the day and the activity revolves around the minister or the deputy, instead of the Chief Executives who live in the towns and cities.

Consequently, in the absence of the minister or the deputy, there is no show – a clear evidence of eye-service. 
 
It’s high time the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development took a second look at the National Sanitation Day.

This is a national matter and must be taken on with all the seriousness that it deserves.  

One of the challenges that have bedeviled development initiatives is inconsistency of communication strategies.
 
Thus, communication for development must be deepened to ensure total participation of the citizenry in the National Sanitation Day.  

In fact, development can be summed as, sharing information and acquiring knowledge, adopting the acquired knowledge and practicing this knowledge.  

It is true that sanitation is a shared responsibility; the MMDAs must lead the way in this shared responsibility, because they have been mandated by law to take up such responsibilities.  

Sanitation is a development issue; it must attract all the needed attention. 

Chief Executives and the Environmental Health Directorate must be up and doing to ensure a clean Ghana.  

A clean Ghana is a healthy Ghana; a healthy Ghana is the one where SDG Six becomes a reality.   

BY ALEX BLEGE, A FREELANCE JOURNALIST WITH INTEREST IN HUMAN AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.