Policy analyst and Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has criticised the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s (AMA) directive requiring residents and traders to mandatorily participate in the August National Sanitation Day clean-up exercise.

His comments come after the AMA announced that persons who fail to participate in the exercise or engage in trading during the clean-up period on Saturday, August 1, would face arrest, prosecution and other sanctions under the Assembly’s sanitation bye-laws.

The Assembly said all shops, stalls, tabletop businesses, hawking and trading activities must remain closed between 6:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon while residents and stakeholders join efforts to desilt drains, clear choked gutters, sweep public spaces and evacuate refuse.

In a social media post on Tuesday, July 28, Bentil argued that sanitation is the responsibility of public officials tasked and paid to keep the city clean.

He argued that compelling residents to abandon their work to undertake those duties reflects a flawed approach to sanitation management.

“The people whose job it is to clean but have failed are asking their employers who have paid them to clean, to rather leave their jobs and professions to come and do the work they’ve paid these officials to do,” his post read in part.

“This absurdity which only creates more problem goes on because our leaders think backwards!! When we finally wake up and get serious, this silly approach will stop,” the policy analyst said.

Meanwhile, the AMA, in a statement issued on Monday, said the monthly clean-up exercise is intended to improve environmental sanitation, protect public health, prevent flooding and promote collective responsibility for keeping Accra clean.

It also warned that strict enforcement would be applied against anyone who fails to participate, obstructs the exercise or engages in trading during the designated period.