District Chief Executive (DCE) for Wassa Amenfi, Stephen Badu Acheampong, has threatened to arrest anybody in his district who does not turn up for the next general clean-up dubbed; National Sanitation Day.

The DCE, who was frustrated by the low turnout for the sanitation exercise in his district after deploying all that he thought were strategies that could attract his people to participate in the cleaning exercise, warned that in the coming months anybody who does not participate, would be arrested and prosecuted accordingly.

After series of notices that anybody who would open his/her shop or store would be dealt with, the DCE realised that the shops were closed but the people were not cleaning their environments, not even where they operated their businesses.

Again, many people were seen standing idle and watching the very few people who were cleaning principal roads within the district.

“After the exercise, myself, the police and some others met and have come to a conclusion that the law must be made to work in our district, and ensure that people see the Sanitation Day as something for the whole nation and not for some people,” Mr. Badu Acheampong told Host of Anopa Bosuo on Kasapreko FM, Kwaku Anane.

Admitting that the sanitation exercise had failed once again, the aggrieved DCE stated that “that is why I say the law must work and those who absent themselves be dealt with.”

According to him, there was no need for any parliamentary approval before they get a legal stand to prosecute absentees as District Assemblies had bye-laws which allowed them to prosecute people who do not attend communal labour exercises.

“This is a form of communal labour, and in our villages whoever does not attend communal labour is dealt with, and this is another form of communal labour so no one can say that we should get approval from Parliament before we prosecute those who do not participate,” he argued.

The District Assembly arranged a stakeholders meeting with high-profile opinion leaders in the district two days before the sanitation exercise, with a view to include them all and their people but were surprised to record low numbers again.

The opinion leaders who attended the stakeholders meeting included traditional and religious leaders, leaders of business associations and transport unions in the district. The stakeholders raised a number of issues which in their view had hampered the success of the Sanitation exercise nationally and called on the assembly to do well to address them.

While some of them complained that the assembly had ignored them from the very beginning of the exercise, others stated that the assembly had been grossly ineffective in managing sanitation issues in the district and had left it in the hands of radio presenters and commentators.

Meanwhile a local government expert in the area, Anthony Kwame Darko, had disagreed with the DCE’s intention to criminalise non-participation of the National Sanitation Day, saying it is not backed by any law.

Mr. Darko, who is a former Presiding Member of the Wassa Akropong District Assembly, pointed out that government’s approach to the National Sanitation Day needs a redress.