About 120 residents of the Asokore Mampong Municipality are to face prosecution for refusing to participate in the National Sanitation Day clean-up exercise held on Saturday, November 1.
The individuals allegedly ignored directives from the Municipal Assembly to suspend all commercial activities in observance of the nationwide exercise.
The first Saturday of every month has been designated as National Sanitation Day across Ghana.
The initiative, launched on November 1, 2014, by the Government, was introduced in response to a cholera outbreak that year to promote community hygiene and environmental cleanliness.
Mr Ben Abdullah Alhassan, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), said all those implicated would be served with notices on Monday, November 3, and subsequently arraigned before the Asokore Mampong District Court.
Mr Alhassan insisted that the Sanitation Day exercise was a mandatory civic responsibility aimed at ensuring a clean and healthy environment.
He expressed disappointment at the apathy shown by some residents who disregarded the Assembly’s directives.
Visibly frustrated, the MCE vowed to ensure that offenders were duly sanctioned to serve as a deterrent to others who might neglect future exercises.
He lamented that the Assembly spends millions of cedis annually on sanitation-related activities due to the negligence of some community members.
Mr Alhassan appealed to traditional leaders, religious institutions, schools, businesses, civil society groups, and particularly the media to use their platforms to intensify public education and mobilise community participation.
He emphasised that the long-term success of the National Sanitation Day initiative depended on the collective commitment of all sectors of society.
The MCE and his team later toured 15 communities within the municipality and expressed satisfaction with the level of participation observed in most areas
GNA
