Protecting The Environment: SDA Women's Group Propose On The Spot Fines For Littering

The Women Ministry Director for Amakom Sector of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Madam Theresah Osei, has charged the government to consider the introduction of spot fine for sanitation offenders to ensure cleanliness.

She insisted the introduction will deter people from littering, adding, revenues from the fines can be used to support the local government ministry to help manage sanitation issues which a major challenge confronting the ministry.

The Women Ministry Director for Amakom Sector of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church Madam Theresah Osei made the call over the weekend when two sectors of the SDA church in Kumasi (Amakom and Bomso) organized clean up exercise at the Tech Junction near the KNUST in the Oforikrom Municipality in Kumasi.

A total of one hundred and twenty church members participated in the exercise that also saw gutters on the stretch of the road bushes cleaned and cleared.

The cleanup exercise she said coincided with the West Central Africa Division Women Ministries Conference to be held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi from the 29th July to 4th August 2019, where 52 African countries would join their Ghanaian counterparts on the Theme, Saved to Serve.

According to Madam Theresah Osei, the issue of sanitation was becoming an insurmountable hurdle for successive governments to clear but believed the required programs or measures are not brought on board to eradicate the menace, adding that the re-introduction of Sanitation Officers would help in this direction.

Madam Theresah Osei posited “I would implore the government to consider introducing spot fines and sanitation inspectors to help curb the growing menace in the sanitation sector. The spot fine would deter people from indiscriminate littering of the environment while the Sanitation Inspectors would also instill discipline”.

“The offenders must pay something to the government so that the proceeds could be used to support sanitation management. As it stands now the level of indiscipline is so high and this could go a long way to reduce the environmental problems,” she added.

She indicated that the challenge to address the sanitation issues required the drastic and strong political will of the governments since the costs associated with sanitation problems are dearly paid by the people through flooding, generation of diseases and sometimes deaths.