The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Kpone Katamanso, Samuel Tetteh Kwashie Morton, has called for a review of Ghana’s sanitation laws to allow offenders who engage in indiscriminate dumping of waste to perform community service instead of paying fines.
He said requiring sanitation offenders to clean public spaces would serve as a stronger deterrent and help foster greater public responsibility for environmental cleanliness.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, July 17, 2026, Mr Morton said the current system, under which offenders are prosecuted and fined, may not be as effective in changing behaviour.
“We need to take a second look at our sanitation laws again. What I’ve realised this time is, if we could come up with fresh by-laws that would ask people to do communal work, instead of us taking them to court for them to be fined maybe Ghc500 or Ghc800,” he said.
“But once we see somebody doing this, indiscriminate dumping, I would ask the person to sweep along the streets or maybe collect everything there or maybe stand there to do something.”
Mr Morton said such an approach would make offenders accountable while sending a clear message to the public about the importance of protecting the environment.
“I think it also acts as a deterrent for people to see that yes, the environment is for all of us and together we can protect it better,” he added.
The MCE noted that Ghana already has provisions for community service in some criminal cases as part of efforts to reduce prison overcrowding and suggested that sanitation offences could be treated similarly.
“So I’m told that there’s a community service law which has been passed for general criminal cases because they want to decongest our prisons. So possibly you, the MCEs, can push further for the sanitation laws to also follow that model,” he said.
