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The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Julius Debrah, has said although the National Sanitation Day programme was successful, it was let down by some assemblies because they failed to collect the rubbish. He, however, pointed out that since the campaign for good sanitation habits was not an event that happened once in a lifetime, it must be supported and sustained by all Ghanaians. �We will be happier to see more people endorse the campaign and make it part of their lifestyle. This is the measure we will use to judge the exercise,� he told the Daily Graphic. While sharing experiences gathered by the Ministry after the Sanitation Day exercise on November 1, 2014, with the Daily Graphic, Mr Debrah said the ministry was exploring alternative modern ways of disposing of waste as part of the general sanitation master plan for the country. In line with this, he said the ministry was implementing measures to end landfill sites as well as focus on building composite and waste energy plants across the country. He added that already, pilot programmes were underway in selected parts of the country and a delegation from Ghana had also visited the Netherlands, Brazil and Denmark to acquaint itself with global best practices of managing cities and districts. According to Mr Debrah, �waste is gold and it is what you do with it that goes to support national development effort.� Sanitation He said the ministry was currently spending more time on sanitation issues and that he was hopeful by March next year, it would introduce Small and Micro Enterprise (SME) activities. He said under the SMEs, the ministry would support activities such as bakery and sachet water production. According to Mr Debrah, the overarching objectives of the ministry in organising the sanitation day exercise was to change the mindset of Ghanaians to clean habits. �If people are judging by the numbers to measure the success of the communal labour, then that will be wrong: we at the ministry want to inculcate changed habits right from the homes, churches, schools and work-places,� the minister stated. Thematic pillars Going into the future, Mr Debrah mentioned effective decentralisation policy to empower the assemblies; job creation within the jurisdictions of the assemblies; and social housing policy as the key policy direction of the ministry. Under the social housing policy, Mr Debrah disclosed that a pilot basis was underway in Tamale in the Northern Region. Resources He said aside its traditional source of funds from the Ministry of Finance, the Local Government Ministry was exploring the environmental tax, the possibility of using the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and mobilisation of local entrepreneurs to sustain and fund activities of the ministry. He said he was hopeful through such business models, there would be a positive outcome such as good dividends. Challenges On immediate challenges that confronted the ministry, apart from resources and logistics, Mr Debrah mentioned the negative mindset of some Ghanaians towards environmental issues, passive citizens, customs, traditional and religious beliefs as well as partisanship as some of the bottlenecks. He, however, said his ministry was very optimistic of not only surviving but making a difference in this era of competing needs in the midst of limited resources. Current generation He called on the current generation to think ahead of what they could do to impact positively the next generation, adding that �Life is like running a baton race. If Nkrumah had not won independence for Ghana, we would be in the Gold Coast. In a relay race, if a person slows down his team loses. If everybody decides to run their part with extra vigour, the team will win.�