Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has bemoaned the deteriorating state of Ghana’s sanitation, noting that it breaks her heart.

According to Mrs. Rawlings, she has lived the most part of her life in the Ridge area of Accra and that what she has observed over the years with respect to sanitation is not pleasing at all.

Speaking on TV3’s New Day, the former first lady, who recently launched her book ‘It takes a Woman’, did not seem enthused about the situation.

She answered in the affirmative when host Johnnie Hughes asked whether the situation breaks her heart.

“I have lived in Ridge since I was like 7 years. I have seen the way it used to be. I have seen the deterioration and it’s sad”, she said.

The wife of Ghana’s longest-serving head of state cited an example of a clinic she said is close to her office.

She claims the clinic dumps its refuse “across the street” and she is contemplating writing to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) about it.

The conversation about Ghana’s sanitation was triggered by a chapter in her book which she titles ‘Ghana Rising’.

In the said chapter, she makes an allusion to a time in Ghana’s history where “our mothers, like other Ghanaians, saw the filth and hated it” but only hoped someone or something happened to change the situation.

She believes sanitation is a problem in Ghana and that it is not just enough for the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to talk about Accra becoming the cleanest city.

She believes it is possible for Accra to attain that feat but that there should be actions accompanying the talk.

She observes that even though there is a minister in-charge of sanitation, more needs to be done to achieve the dream of Accra becoming the cleanest city.

“It can be done, but it has to be done with all the forcefulness it deserves, with education. While we’re educating and there is force from the ministry and the rest of us, we should let the populace know you can’t just throw paper where you want,” she said.