The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo has stressed the need for a change in the attitudes of citizens to ease the burden on the national purse with regards to improving sanitation in the country.
Speaking at a forum in Accra on ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’, Yaw Osafo Maafo complained about the “sad” situation where dustbins are fastened with bolts and nuts in Accra.
He said such situations bring extra cost to the state.
“I was just walking around and I discovered that [the Accra Metropolitan Assembly] has introduced some dustbins and they’ve bolted this with a lock and put it on a concrete block and surrounded it such that nobody can remove them. Is this necessary?”
“The cost of putting a dustbin [at a vantage point] is far more than the dustbin itself. Yes, that is it; the lock, the concrete, the metal belt, and everything, is far more than the dustbin. Should it be so?…Here in Ghana, if you leave them unprotected, people will move them to their houses for their personal use.”
The Minister views more discipline from citizens as the solution to some of these extra costs.
“The cost to us in trying to have good sanitation is a problem. If people were disciplined and people followed simple things, the government expenditure on sanitation will definitely be less so the whole thing is still mindset and I think this is not a political philosophy. This is being fair to mother Ghana.”
Mr. Osafo Maafo also made similar comments about tackling corruption at the same forum.
“Our current state of development is a reflection of our values, mindset, priorities, and work ethics as people. We need a mindset change to achieve Ghana Beyond Aid.”
“Transparency and accountability results in Ghana free from all forms of corruption. Corruption obviously takes a big toll on our resources because it runs through the system and we have to fight and fight it hard.”