Dr Eric Osae, a Local Government Expert on Monday, said it is a criminal offence to throw rubbish on the street and offenders are liable to a three-year jail term.
Dr Osae who is the Dean at the Institute of Local Government Studies made this known during a sensitisation forum on the new Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936) for non-state actors in Sunyani.
It was organised by the Centre for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA) a non-governmental and research organisation and attended by traditional rulers and civil society organisation.
Dr Osae explained that the debilitating health effects of indiscriminate dumping of refuse on citizens and society in general were enormous.
This, he indicated had resulted to the outbreak of communicable diseases, leading to avoidable deaths and a number of health implications on the lives of people.
Dr Osae warned cattle owners who allowed their animals to stray, saying they would be seized, whilst the culprits would prosecuted.
He said modalities were being worked out to infuse Health and Education as well as the Ghana National Fire Service into the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) under the new Act 936.
This implies that the MMDAs would pay monthly salaries and allowances of nurses, doctors, teachers, personnel and all other workers in the sectors.
Dr Osae said the successful integration of the sectors would promote transparency and efficiency to make it easy to assess the performance of workers.
Mrs Gladys Tetteh, the Deputy Executive Director of the CLGA, underscored the need to sensitise the public on the Local Governance Act so that citizens would not be found wanting.
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