Stinking gutters, filth at Tema Station a blow to Accra’s Cleanest City dream

It is an inevitable route when one finds himself around the high and supreme courts or what is popularly called the ‘Ministries’.

In your own car, you may have several options, but to get access to public transport, the most viable option would be a bus from Tema Station.

One of the capital’s oldest lorry stations has now become an eyesore; there is filth everywhere and an unbearable stench from the drainage and mobile washrooms.

In 2016, President Akufo-Addo pledged to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa by 2020. The pledge, as it stands, appears very far from being attained if the poor attitude of Ghanaians and the ineffective role of city authorities remains unchanged.

A visit by Ghanaweb’s Joseph Adamafio to the station in the heart of Accra highlighted the direness of the situation.

Commuters around the station’s environs complained about the awful smell that emanates from the gutter and the showcase of filth in the area, blaming among others, drivers and hawkers for contributing to the deplorable state of the station.

“The way this place stinks, authorities need to help us, you can’t even breathe when you pass by, this place really smells. There are so many pure water sachets, black polythenes and rubbers in the area and the president and assemblyman have to help. When I walk around and I find some adults wrongfully disposing of rubbish, I informed them but they rather insult me and tag me as disrespectful,” a student who frequents the area said.

Drivers who daily use the station for their businesses also lamented the situation which they say poses serious health implications for them. They blamed the activities of head porters who sleep at the station for the terrible smell from the drains. They alleged that the head potters sneak in the middle of the night to use the gutters as a place of convenience.

Apart from the fact that they don’t see monies taxed them by city authorities being used for management of the place, they are more pained about the fact that the situation has led to a boycott of the place by most passengers who would rather patronise other stations in the capital to avoid the dreadful stench.



Interestingly the station hosts a health facility in a structure near the drainage which serves as a ‘rescue center’ for passengers, traders, and drivers at the station who fall sick.

A health practitioner at the Tema Station Clinic, Madam Larbi, also disclosed how the facility has had its fair share of problems because of sanitation problems at the station.

“It’s so obvious you can’t hide from it. It is very bad but that is why we are in contact with the Assembly just hoping that it will be solved. It is bad buying food in the environment because ‘the flies just come from the gutters and settle on the food and that can bring about cholera and all that diseases but we need to practice good hygiene,”, she said.

Traders at the Tema Station also pleaded with authorities to come to their aid and renovate the facility so it becomes user-friendly for passengers since their livelihood depends on passengers who buy from them.