President Mahama, Vice President to participate in national clean-up exercise
By: Ebenezer Adu-Gyamfi / Emmanuel Ayiku for GhanaianNewsCanada | July 9, 2026
ACCRA, Ghana — In a major push to tackle sanitation and mitigate severe flooding across the country, President John Dramani Mahama and Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang are set to hit the streets to personally participate in a massive, two-day national clean-up exercise.
The initiative, scheduled to take place on Friday, July 10, and Saturday, July 11, 2026, was put forward by the Post-Flood Mitigation Committee. It comes as a direct response to recent torrential rains and devastating floods that displaced residents and disrupted livelihoods in several regions.
Keeping the Location a “Surprise”
Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Linda Ocloo, confirmed the executive leadership’s hands-on involvement but noted that their exact deployment sites are being kept under wraps.
According to Madam Ocloo, the secrecy is a deliberate strategy to evaluate the independent readiness and operational capacity of local government bodies.
“Yes, His Excellency the President and the Vice President will be taking part,” Madam Ocloo stated. “We want to test some of the Assemblies by surprise. The President will visit and know what they have done so far.”
The exercise has mobilized a massive network of stakeholders, including Members of Parliament (MPs), Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), traditional authorities, and local community members. Minister Ocloo added that she will personally oversee clean-up efforts across key zones in the capital, including the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Ayawaso, Okaikwei North, Ayawaso West, Tema, and La Nkwataman.
The “Green Heart” Campaign
Dubbed the “Green Heart” initiative within the Greater Accra Region, the intensive two-day drive will focus heavily on desilting choked drains, removing heaps of uncollected waste from public squares, and clearing critical waterways before the next wave of heavy seasonal rains.
While the government hopes the exercise will jumpstart a culture of environmental consciousness, the campaign has not been without its skeptics. Some civic observers have criticized the initiative, arguing that temporary, ad-hoc clean-up exercises are insufficient structural fixes for Accra’s deeply entrenched drainage and flooding crisis.
Responding to these criticisms, Madam Ocloo emphasized that the “Green Heart” campaign is not a superficial, standalone event, but rather a vital component of a broader, long-term sanitation agenda aimed at restoring environmental hygiene nationwide.
The Regional Minister maintained that permanently resolving Ghana’s sanitation vulnerabilities requires both heavy, sustained state investment and a shared sense of civic responsibility between local assemblies and the citizens they serve.
