Accra ushers in New Year with more filth

The launch of a ‘Saman Saman’ taskforce notwithstanding, Accra ushered in the New & Golden Jubilee year with much more filth than ever, occasioned by a multiplicity of factors.

With a city authority that appears to be loosing the fight against filth rather fast, rubbish collecting points are still heaped and overflowing, the streets are dirty, the markets are more of rubbish dumps than selling points and the city smells. It stinks.

While, households continue to generate high volumes of waste which they heap and leave in front of their gates or have scattered in their homes and in front of them; many of us careless but ready to shout hoarse first, continue to litter the streets with all kinds of waste.

Accra’s dirty outlook obviously cannot be blamed on the city authority alone although they more than anybody else have the ultimate responsibility to ensure cleanliness by collecting the waste, paying the waste collectors and/or applying sanctions where applicable.

The rapid growth of the city of Accra and the large numbers that enter it everyday means waste management will continue to be a major issue. Unfortunately, over the years we have not succeeded in perfecting a waste management plan than will effectively see waste from households picked up periodically, waste sent to rubbish dumps collected regularly to prevent spillage and foul scents, ensure regular and sustained cleaning of the streets & drains, and the maintenance of a hygienic, improved and recyclable compost site or dumping ground.

Why this cannot be done is and remains a mystery. Recently the Local Government re-launched the concept of ‘Saman Saman’ which unfortunately may not be effective. Why? Because the fact that Accra smells cannot be blamed on one individual household. And indeed, who within the vicinity of the Kaneshie market will be ‘summoned’ and sanctioned for the waste?

The plain truth is that that concept if it will work at all, it will be restricted to visit to households, unfortunately again, Accra and indeed Ghana waste problems are more of out of the home than within.

If I don’t get anywhere to dump my waste after piling it up, whose fault is that? Or do residents now have to travel with their bags of containers to Gbawe of the Teshie compost site every morning to dump refuse?

As indicated earlier, Accra’s growing human & infrastructure base compounds the waste problems here. With economic boom concentrated in the city rural-urban migration would continue.

For many of the migrants also, who cannot afford decent housing, slums and other low income areas have been the answer to their problem. It is not surprising that places like ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’, Nima, New Town, Avenor, Chorkor etc are getting the general society worried about health and environmental hazards.

You may properly ask why this situation? Unplanned communities mean that improper construction of sewage and drainage systems will be inevitable.

For instance in most communities in Accra such as the Teshie, Dansoman, Maamobi, Madina etc. most bathrooms do not have drainage systems. It is common to see buckets wedged into a man-made hole at one end of the makeshift bathroom.

Here, as the person baths, the water drains into the bucket. Afterwards, the user carries the bucket of waste water and pours it on the street. Hairdressers in such areas also use the street for disposal of waste water. With time, erosion takes place on these roads. It is by these same roads that you find bread, kenkey, waatse etc displayed for you to purchase.

Solid waste is also an increasing endemic for the country. As early as 4.30am in the morning, Ghanaians are awake cleaning for the day; from the streets to homes, sweeping and gathering of garbage takes place. So clearly, we know that Ghanaians have a cleaning culture but the problem lies in the refuse collection. People carry refuse to collection bins and some to refuse dumps.

With an increasing population, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly has a real challenge meeting the needs of the solid waste system in Accra.

The Waste Management Department (WMD) of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly is responsible for garbage collection and disposal, and general sanitation within Accra. Starting in 1997, solid waste collection and haulage was privatized and contracted out to a number of companies, many of which are not paid on time.

Solid waste collection in Accra is either house-to-house collection or central container collection. House-to-house collection is most prevalent in the middle or high-income communities. In densely-populated communities central waste depositories are located at a central point and are supposed to be collected daily.

However, residents complain of irregular collection of waste by these private collectors. Waste containers are often seen brimming with garbage days on end without being collected. Aside that the number of containers provided is insufficient. Alajo, Osu, La, Kisseiman and other places have this overflowing container problems.

For most frustrated residents, they seem to have no choice than to dump refuse at illegal sites. The problem is compounded by communities where there are no waste disposal collections. They resort to the use of water bodies, gutters and illegal sites as dumping grounds. The Korle Lagoon is a perfect example of an ‘abused’ water body.

Even when collection takes place, these disposal vehicles refuse to use proper transportation systems, thereby re-depositing heaps of rubbish on our roads.

“The effect of all these is serious health and Sanitation inadequacies which contribute to seventy percent of diseases in Ghana. Malaria, diarrhoea, and intestinal worms and upper Respiratory Tract Infections are among the most frequent health problems reported at outpatient facilities in the Greater Accra Region; and, seasonal epidemic outbreaks of cholera (coinciding with floods) and meningitis consistently occur. In central Accra, major health problems are diseases attributed to poor environmental sanitation, exacerbated by poverty and the lack of related health education information.” (Southern Links, 2002).