Beyond Performative Cleanups: Why Ghana’s Sanitation Strategy Demands Policy, Not PR Stunts

The national conversation around sanitation in Ghana continues to reveal an uncomfortable truth: we have normalised mediocrity and elevated performative activism over serious policy. A striking example is the recent chorus demanding that corporate institutions—such as Cal Bank—abandon their core mandate to desilt gutters. Expecting a financial institution to compromise customer service, where clients may have urgent, life‑critical transactions, simply to participate in a symbolic cleanup exercise is misguided. These one‑day campaigns are unsustainable; gutters cleared today are routinely clogged again within a week.

If the state genuinely intends to mobilise the entire population, it should declare a formal national sanitation holiday. Otherwise, public cleanliness must be treated as a daily, institutionalised responsibility—not an occasional spectacle.

To achieve a permanently clean capital, government must shift from episodic campaigns to structured, long‑term strategies. A key starting point is deliberate youth empowerment. Authorities should formalise partnerships with informal transport workers and street youth—popularly known as “bus stop boys”—and equip them with the tools and training required to maintain cleanliness at major transit points every single day.

Equally urgent is the establishment of a 24/7 sanitation enforcement unit. A fully uniformed “Sanitary Police” force, equipped with motorbikes, should be deployed across communities to enforce sanitation laws consistently. Their mandate would include issuing penalties, monitoring hotspots, and providing a visible deterrent to littering and environmental abuse.

Year after year, Ghana pours substantial public resources into the sanitation sector with negligible impact. The state continues to invest heavily in campaigns that produce little more than photo opportunities and corporate guilt‑tripping. It is time to abandon these expensive, ineffective rituals and redirect resources toward daily maintenance, structured local partnerships, and uncompromising law enforcement.

Cleanliness is not achieved through PR stunts. It is achieved through policy, discipline, and systems that work.