The Mayor of Accra, Hon. Michael Kpakpo Allotey has embarked on a public sensitisation campaign to rally traders, shop owners, and other stakeholders to actively participate in tomorrow’s National Sanitation Day exercise.

The Mayor, who began the campaign from the Kinbu traffic light through Tudu, Katamanto,  Makola Market, and finally to the forecourt of the Accra City Hall urged traders to fully join the clean-up exercise to ensure an early completion so that shops could reopen on time.

He emphasised that collective action was the only way to restore cleanliness and order in the city, stressing that the participation of traders and market women would make the exercise more effective.

Mayor Allotey also cautioned traders to comply with the ‘Red Line Policy’, which regulates trading activities on pedestrian walkways, and directed them to begin cleaning their surroundings ahead of the official start of the exercise tomorrow.

He cautioned that a strict post-exercise enforcement drive would follow the clean-up adding that persons who flout the Assembly’s sanitation bye-laws would be arrested, sent to court and prosecuted to serve as a deterrent and sustain hygiene gains made during the exercise.

The National Sanitation Day, which is observed on the first Saturday of every month, is aimed at mobilising communities across the country to rid their environments of filth, reduce health risks, and promote sustainable urban living.

The exercise is in line with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (Communal Labour) Bye-Laws, 2017, enacted pursuant to section 181 of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936) which mandates the Assembly to observe the first Saturday of every month as a National Sanitation Day and forms part of efforts to rid the city of filth, promote public health, deepen shared responsibility for a cleaner, safer, and a  more resilient Accra.