A walk or drive through the streets of Accra and other cities would expose one to the state of filth that has engulfed our country.

Over the years we have not been able to properly tackle this menace due to lack of behavioural change, increasing rate of urbanisation, indiscriminate dumping of plastics, among other factors.

But the remedy to poor sanitation cannot rest on the shoulders of one person, department, or organisation. The onus lies on us the citizenry since we are all part of the ‘mess’.

My worry, however, is that there’s little or no sense of civic responsibility on the part of citizens when it comes to proper sanitation. We continue to generate waste and recklessly dispose waste in our various communities.

We litter our surroundings, cut down trees, burn rubbish and anything around us haphazardly. In spite of warnings, some residents continue to build on water ways while others turn open drains into dumping grounds.

Our country continues to face a lot of infrastructure and political challenges but these challenges would linger on if we do not maintain clean and healthy environment.

While I believe we must reinforce the message on attitudinal change, sanitation courts should continue to impose hefty fines on persons who breach sanitation regulations.

The weekly and monthly environment clean up should be reactivated and government must as well put words to action when it comes to banning “harmful” plastics. These and other workable measures, I believe, would go a long way to help control filth in our country.

Matilda Opoku Boabeng,

Student, Ghana Institute of Journalism