The Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Nii Moi Thompson, has called for the revival of the town council system to enable it to summon and impose fines as a way to help address Ghana's growing sanitation problems.

Speaking at the launch of Ghana’s voluntary national report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Accra on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, Dr Thompson said poor institutional enforcement had created a culture of impunity around waste disposal.

He recalled that in the past, town councils were active in penalising households for unhygienic practices, which kept neighbourhoods cleaner.

“Most of you in this room may recall the days of the town council. When they say ‘town council reba’, we’d all run to cover our garbage because even an open bin could attract a fine,” he said.

Dr Thompson proposed a three-part solution to the sanitation crisis: structural, behavioural, and institutional reform. On structural reforms, he criticised the continued construction of open drains, arguing that these inevitably become clogged.

“As long as we build open gutters, there will be choked gutters,” he said.

He called for a shift to covered drainage systems and cited South Africa’s example, where open gutters have been replaced with covered systems and sloped pavements.

On behaviour, Dr Thompson urged nationwide education campaigns to discourage environmentally harmful habits, including the automatic use of plastic packaging for food and takeaway items.

He noted that many restaurants provide plastic cutlery for food intended to be eaten at home, contributing to unnecessary plastic waste.

“While the world is going this way, we are going completely in the opposite direction,” he remarked.

He also revealed that Ghana’s score on the Ocean Health Index had risen slightly from 63.25 to 65 out of 100, but said this should not create complacency. According to him, the country should reduce waste generation rather than rely solely on expanding processing capacity.

The sanitation issue was raised as part of a wider review of Ghana’s performance on the SDGs. Dr Thompson described Ghana’s maternal mortality rate as "unacceptably high", noting that it stood at four times the global target. In 2021, rural areas recorded 374 deaths per 100,000 live births, with the Upper East Region having the highest rate at 465. Urban areas, by comparison, recorded 233 deaths per 100,000 births.

On the economy, Dr Thompson pointed out that Ghana’s tax-to-GDP ratio remains at 16%, compared to 25% in South Africa.

He attributed this to the largely informal structure of Ghana’s economy, where 80% of workers operate outside formal systems.

He added that 20% of Ghana’s labour force has never attended school, while 54% have only basic education up to junior high school level.