The Church of Pentecost in collaboration with the Wa Municipal Assembly has organised a massive clean-up exercise in Wa to climax the “Environmental Care Campaign”.

The two institutions launched the campaign on Sunday, February 23, 2020, to drum home the need for the public to observe good sanitation practices to help make Wa the cleanest city in Ghana.

As part of the campaign, they carried out institutional sensitization in churches, schools and mosques as well as radio discussions to get the message of good sanitation practices to the people.

Members of the Church of Pentecost, Wa Municipal Assembly, Boys Scout and the Zoomlion Ghana Limited among others participated in the clean-up exercise.

Shops at the Wa Central Market and Wa Kajetia, as well as around the Wa Naa's Palace and the Jubilee Park where the exercise took place, were closed as personnel from the Ghana Police Service were present to ensure maximum compliance.

Addressing participants after the exercise, Mr Paul Baba Mornah, the Wa Municipal Environment Health Officer, said Wa was regarded as the cleanest town some years back, but stated that the narrative had changed because people now engage in bad sanitation practices.

He urged them to jealously guard that position to ensure that Wa remained the cleanest city in Ghana in the next ranking.

Mr Mornah identified poor plastic waste management as a major environmental health challenge in the municipality and appealed to the people to avoid indiscriminate waste disposal and to dispose of plastic waste in refuse bins.

On Open Defecation, the environmentalist appealed to the people to defecate in household latrines rather than defecating in the open, which posed health risk to the general public.

He explained that the Assembly would soon gazette by-laws against ill sanitation practices and called on landlords to construct toilets in their houses in order to avoid being prosecuted.

Mr Mustapha Nuhu Sinto, the Upper West Regional Director of the Information Service Department, urged the people to discipline themselves in their quest to make Wa the cleanest city in the country, and said observing good sanitation practices required self-discipline.

Apostle Daniel Nii Tetteh Tackie, the Upper West Regional Area Head of the Church of Pentecost, noted that it was a collective responsibility for everyone to keep the environment clean.

He said the current state of the environment in the Region should be a wake-up call on stakeholders and the public to act to make the region the cleanest in the northern part of the country.