Charismatic, Christian Churches support National Sanitation Day re-launch

 The leaders of the National Associa­tion of Charismatic and Christian Churches (NACCC) have pledged their support for the government’s initia­tive to relaunch National Sanitation Day.

According to them, sanitation is a collective responsibility that requires the involvement of all Ghanaians and not just the responsibility of the government alone.

The leaders gave the pledge in Accra last Wednesday when the Minister of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mr Ahmed Ibrahim led a dele­gation from the ministry to pay separate courtesy call on some religious institutions, including the Ghana Pentecostal Charismatic Congress(GPCC), Action Chapel International Ministry (ACI), and Ga Mantse Palace

The engagements form part of broader consultations with faith-based organisations to galvanise national support and community participation towards the success of the National Sanitation Day (NSD), slated to take effect on the 3rd of May.

“We strongly believe that it is all of our responsibility for taking the initiative to create the awareness of the importance of sanitation when it comes to nation building and also to help enhance longevity in our society or community,” they said.

“We’ll speak to all our churches and our pastors and bishops all across the country to add the mes­sage of sanitation to our Sunday messages,” they added.

In all the visit, Mr Ibrahim lamented the rapid rate at which plastic waste was being littered in the country, leading to the reduction of soil fertility and the pollution of the environment as well our water bodies.

Announcing the reintroduction of the NSD, the minister said, all shops would be closed with com­mercial activities suspended from early morning until 10am to ensure massive participation on the said day.

To this end, he urged all the citizenry to support the force noting that managing sanitation and hygiene required collaborative effort among relevant stakeholders.

“Tackling poor sanitation is a na­tional concern and shared respon­sibility requiring collective effort from every citizen,” he added.

At the ACI, citing a biblical account, Archbishop Nicholas Dun­can-Williams, chairman of NACCC, emphasised the role humans in keeping their environment saying “God put humans in charge of the earth to guard, protect, and keep it clean, so it behoved every human to ensure that this mandate was delivered.”

The Archbishop therefore called on all Ghanaians to take ownership of their environment and work towards creating a cleaner and healthier society.

“We can’t wait for government to come and tell us your gutter is filled. We the people in the community need to take responsibility and stop leaving everything to the govern­ment.” he emphasised.

At the GPCC, the Chairman of the Council, Apostle Eric Kwabena Nyamekye who received the del­egation commended the govern­ment for such initiative, pledging the council’s support to see to the accomplishment of the initiative.

“Poor sanitation is a problem that we all see and we need to solve this problem together,” he said.

The Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, assured the minister of the traditional council’s commit­ment for a continuous partnership to address the country’s sanitation challenges.

He disclosed that, the council would use the Asafoatsemee as a means for the community to com­ply to sanitation-related issues.

“We have agreed that Asafoatse­mee would be our soldiers on the ground,” he said.

Aside from this, he said, the council would build a legal frame­work to ensure the Asafoatsemee enforce the sanitation by-laws on the streets, from door to door, and in the communities.

All the leaders that were visited, aside assuring their support, advised that the deliberate dumping of refuse in unauthorised areas should be avoided.

Also, they stressed the need to engage with key stakeholders including, Ministry of Health, Min­istry of Education, chief scientists, and the youth to ensure effective enrollment of the initiative.

 BY CYNTHIA ASAMPANA

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