Accra Floods: Parts of the capital engulfed in filth after Thursday’s downpour

Waste may most probably be the biggest setback to the ruling government’s vision of a clean Accra by 2020. Year after year, efforts are made to rid the country of its filth but just somehow, the filth manages to increase continually.

Some areas though, on a normal day may seem significantly clean till it rains, and the floods pull out the hidden waste from drainage systems.

GhanaWeb’s camera captured several parts of the country ‘decorated’ by waste; plastic, paper, etc. after Thursday evening’s downpour that got some areas flooded.

At Alajo, residents attributed the mass waste lying right by the side of the road to the irresponsible attitude of persons living in the area. They narrated how individuals ‘dump’ rubbish from their homes into the drains when the rains are pouring and how some even carry heaps of waste from their homes and dump them in the drains during the night.

Residents of Odawna, had quite a similar story to tell. In their case, persons who are paid to transport waste from various homes leave the waste unattended to till the rains sweep them back into the drainage systems. Some other residents just litter around irresponsibly, they explained.

It leaves one wondering how much the President and his administration can achieve as far as their vision of making Accra the cleanest city is concerned, especially with the attitude of Ghanaians towards sanitation.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo pledged to make Accra the neatest and best city in Africa by the end of his first term of office.

“The commitment we are making and which I want you all to make with me is that by the time we end our four-year term, Accra is going to be the cleanest city in Africa,” he stated in an address he delivered after he had been installed a chief by the people of Jamestown and the Ngleshie Alata Traditional Council under the title Nii Kwaku Abladey Okudzeaman I.