The Parliamentary Select Committee on Sanitation and Water Resources has charged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the country to enact and strictly enforce sanitation bye-laws to address Ghana’s poor sanitation.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. John Oti Bless, said indiscipline, particularly indiscriminate dumping of waste, remains one of Ghana’s biggest sanitation challenges.
“The Assemblies must begin to put bye-laws in place and implement and enforce them. That is the only way we can get out of this mess,” he stressed.
Hon. Oti Bless cited Rwanda as an example of a country that has achieved major progress in sanitation through clear rules, strict enforcement and public compliance.
He was speaking to the media after the Committee’s three-day engagement with MMDAs in the Volta and Oti Regions from Thursday, September 17 to Saturday, September 19, 2026.
The Committee also expressed satisfaction with the level of work so far on Zoomlion Ghana Limited’s Integrated Recycling and Compost Plant (IRECOP) at Yabram, Dambai in the Oti Region.
“Government and the various stakeholders must come on board and support this special initiative. Our target is to have a clean Ghana,” he appealed.
Although the facility was only about three years old, it was still undergoing development, including completion of portions of its fencing.
Hon. Oti Bless commended private waste management service providers, singling out Zoomlion Ghana Limited for its major contribution to sanitation nationwide. He called for stronger collaboration among government, investors and major service providers to move beyond waste disposal to recycling and other sustainable waste management initiatives.
The Committee described the Volta Region as one of the cleanest regions visited so far. “We are impressed with the state of sanitation in the Volta Region. It is the cleanest region. There is no doubt about that,” he said.He said the monitoring exercise will continue, with the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Ashanti and Eastern Regions to be visited next.
Hon. Oti Bless also urged the media to use their platforms to educate the public on proper sanitation practices.
Earlier, on Friday, September 18, 2026, in Ho, Volta Region, the Committee engaged MMDAs in the Volta and Oti Regions on their utilisation of the 10% sanitation allocation under the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF).
The DCEs said while the allocation was helpful, it was inadequate to meet their sanitation needs.
The District Chief Executive for North Tongu, Victoria Amefadzi Doe Yawa, said the lack of skip containers was undermining waste collection in her district. The engagement also revealed that many districts were poorly incentivising sweepers.
In North Tongu, sweepers are paid between GH¢300 and GH¢350 a month, which Hon. Oti Bless described as inadequate.
For Central Tongu, Afadzato South, Akatsi North, Ketu North and Adaklu, the lack of an engineered landfill site and permanent refuse disposal site was a major concern.
