Mr Totimeh noted that the clean-up exercise marked the re-launch of the National Sanitation Day, with Tema West having theirs in the vicinity of the Institute of Local Government.

He said the nationwide clean-up exercise takes place monthly to underscore the importance of taking sanitation issues seriously.

“We need to keep our workplaces and community clean…, and we, the Tema West Municipal Assembly, have also joined forces in observing the day just like any other municipality is doing,” he stated.?

He said the exercise started from the Texpo market through to the Community 18 junction and Sharon spot, explaining that it started with the market area because that was where residents buy their food from.

Mr Totimeh observed that those areas seemed unkempt, which could lead to contamination of the food being sold to residents, and the consumption of unhealthy food.

He lamented that the biggest challenge the assembly had was getting the residents, the market women and shop owners to participate in the exercise as their involvement was not encouraging.

He said it was worrying because even though the assembly’s information department announced the sanitation day, the residents, traders and buyers turned a blind eye, despite the fact that they operated from dirty surroundings, exposing the foodstuffs on the bare ground  including other unhealthy practices, which buyers seemed not to care about.

Mr Totimeh therefore charged the residents to be involved in future cleanup exercises because it was rather for their good, emphasising that the assembly or government could not do it all alone without their support.

He said apart from preventing diseases, cleaning up and desilting choked gutters could also help prevent the pressing flood issues whenever it rained.