Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, Executive Director of the Centre for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA), has lauded government for instituting the National Sanitation Day as part of efforts to encourage Ghanaians to clean their environs.

The Day, which is marked on every first Saturday of each month, was launched by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development on September 17, 2014.

It has since received criticisms from some local government experts that it was not sustainable.

However, Dr Antwi-Danso who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on the sidelines of the launch of the Second Edition of CLGA’s flagship newsletter “The Decentralisation Eye,” said such a Day should be given recognition by dedicating it to a national hero such as Nkrumah, Kufuor, or Rawlings to make the impact felt better.

Dr Antwi-Danso explained that there was a time in South Africa when people called for 90, 93 or 94 minutes of work to commemorate the number of years Mandela spent on Earth.

He urged government to use the names that would fly with the people and use it for people to do voluntary work for themselves and for the nation.

“So I believe that a good beginning has been done with the National Sanitation Day and let us build on it for better things to come.

“It is a very important thing that has been brought to bear on us. Everywhere in the world people do volunteerism in all aspects,” he said.

“Unfortunately volunteerism is dying in our country; so for this to ginger us all to do something, I think it is something we should embrace.”

The Executive Director said various assemblies had being organizing clean up exercises on their own in one way or the other “and I believe we should all catch up to make it a national affair”.

“That amount of time that we spend cleaning our own environment cannot be quantified in any terms; it is fine for our own good”.

He urged metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to build on this to engineer volunteerism in the citizenry throughout the year.

Dr Antwi-Danso said CLGA would feature the National Sanitation Day in its subsequent editions of the newsletter.