The government is to re-introduce the National Sanitation Day(NSD) exercise on Saturday May 3, 2025.

Initially, the government planned to re-launch the exercise on Wednesday April 2, 2025, with a nationwide clean-up on Saturday April 5, 2025. However, the launch and clean-up exercise were postponed.

The National Sanitation Day in Ghana was launched on November 1, 2014, by the Government of Ghana in response to the 2014 Ghanaian cholera outbreak. The day is observed on the first Saturday of every month and is a clean-up exercise aimed at reducing unsanitary conditions that breed diseases and cause injuries.

Courtesy calls

The Minister of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, announced the date for the re-introduction of the NSD, during separate courtesy calls on some religious bodies in Accra on Tuesday, April 15,2025, where he also highlighted the importance of the exercise.

The religious institutions visited were the Christian Council of Ghana, the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

The visits were aimed at re-echoing the vision of President John Dramani Mahama regarding sanitation issues and engaging with key religious leaders on pertinent national issues. The engagements form part of broader consultations being held with stakeholders to galvanise national support and community participation for the success of the initiative.

The Minister stated that “If we don't ensure proper sanitation, a time will come, the sea will not only be filled with plastics, the plastic will come to our houses and homes as we see it now. And that is why from 24th October last year, the nation was hit by cholera again.”

Mr Ahmed further emphasised that there must be “newness in our way of life and that is why we are starting from the pulpit. So when we come to the conscience of the nation, you trumpet it on the Easter day, you trumpet it on the pulpit so that when you talk, Ghanaians listen, you are the social capital we have, you are all that we have.”

Commitment

The Chairman of the Christian Council of Ghana, Right Reverend Dr Hilliard Dela Dogbe, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Right Reverend Dr Abraham Nana Opare Kwakye and the President of the Southern Ghana Union Conference of Seventh-Day Adventist church, Pastor Dr Thomas Techie Ocran respectively, pledged their support for the exercise.