Veteran Ghanaian highlife musician Rex Omar has urged Ghanaians to make sanitation a permanent part of their daily lives, warning that poor environmental practices, including building on waterways and dumping waste into drains, continue to worsen the impact of floods.
Speaking on the first day of the National Clean-up Exercise in flood-affected areas of Accra on Friday, July 10, 2026, Rex Omar said the exercise should not be a temporary response to disasters but should lead to a long-term change in public attitudes towards sanitation.
“I believe that this shouldn’t be a nine-day wonder. It’s something that must be part of our way of life. If it’s every Saturday or every Friday at the end of the month or whatever, it’s something that we need to do,” he said.
The musician said the participation of President John Dramani Mahama in the exercise demonstrated the importance of leadership by example and encouraged citizens to take responsibility for keeping their communities clean.
“Leadership by example, if the president himself is part of it, who am I not to be part of it? So at the end of the day, it is about the country,” Rex Omar said.
He called on Ghanaians to change their attitudes towards sanitation and become more conscious of their surroundings, stressing that environmental neglect often affects everyone regardless of social status.
“We need to change our attitude. They say cleanliness is next to godliness. So we need to be conscious of our environment and then always clean our environment and abide by the laws and the rules of the country,” he said.
Rex Omar said practices such as constructing buildings on waterways and disposing of refuse in gutters had contributed to the country’s flooding challenges, with the consequences often extending to people who may not have contributed to the problem.
“People have been allowed over the years to build in waterways and dump refuse in gutters and all that. And at the end of the day, if the disaster comes, it affects everybody,” he said.
He noted that even residents in affluent communities were not immune to the effects of flooding, as disasters disrupt livelihoods, property and national productivity.
“There are so many people who have built houses in very expensive areas and yet they’ve been affected by the floods. So at the end of the day, it affects productivity, it affects everything,” he said.
The highlife musician also called for stronger enforcement of sanitation laws, saying public education alone would not be enough to address the country’s environmental challenges.
“The most important thing is that there must be enforcement,” he said.
Rex Omar described the recent floods as a wake-up call for citizens and urged authorities and communities to work together to prevent practices that create environmental risks.
“I believe that in going forward, what has happened with this flood is a wake-up call for all of us so as to be able to stop doing things that will create these problems,” he said.
