The state of popular stand washrooms on opening day of AWCON 2018

The 2018 West African Cup of Nations is the 13th edition and also doubles as the African Qualifiers to the 2018 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

It is scheduled to take place on 17th November to 1st December 2018 at the Accra Sports Stadium and the Cape Coast Stadium.

It is the first time Ghana is hosting the tournament and we kick-started with a 1-0 victory against Algeria at Accra Sports Stadium after a successful opening ceremony.

Gladys Anfobea did the honours of scoring our only and winning goal for the game.

Some months ago I heard Kofi Adomah Nwanwani of Adom Fm’s morning show talk sadly about the state of the washroom at the Accra International Airport, Kotoka.

The story is not quite different from the popular stand washrooms at the Accra Sports Stadium. It was quite a disappointment especially considering the fact that it is our first time hosting the tournament and our team actually played on the first day too.

The condition of washroom for popular stand supporters was horrible. The facility had no light and gender indication which I cannot tell if it was indeed available due to poor vision in the dark was nowhere to be found.

The entrance to the stadium was amazing actually but the story was quite the opposite in the washroom. Users had to resort to the use of flashlight of their phones to enable them see their way through.

A careful look at the WC and one could easily tell that they had been newly installed but why would the management go through the hustle of purchasing a new WC and not afford to go an extra mile of to keep it clean and hygienic for users? Or could it be that those particular ones were not meant to be used on that day? If so then why were measures not put in place to ensure that only designated ones were used and the ones that weren’t ready yet kept from the reach of people?

Garbage from the parcelling and fixing of the WCs were just left on the ground of the washroom. The floor was flooded with water from who knows where. The veranda or opening leading to the washroom wasn’t tidy. It had rubbish all around. The words people chorused at the sight of the eyesore was either, “eii Ghana” or “oh Ghana.” With the stench emanating from the place, it still surprised me that people had the breath and energy to blurt out “eii Ghana” and “oh Ghana.”

How can this be allowed to happen as the host of the WACN? In fact, there were no flash handles to flash the WC after using it. Another washroom had something similar to a pit latrine; I mean the ‘wheetum’and can you just imagine that even that one was almost full with solid human waste? Instead of striping Ghana of the rights to host the tournament as envisaged earlier, Ghana was finally given the chance to host the eight-team tournament and the best we could do was have our washroom for the popular stand supporters in those conditions?

The facility should have been cleaned after fixing the equipment and plumbing works employed to ensure that there is not flooding in the room. Something should have definitely been done about the pit latrine. Lights should be fixed.

Cleaners should have been provided at every corner to ensure that the place was constantly clean because people are always expected to be using places of convenience at stadiums almost all the time due to the number of attendees.

Definitely this is nothing good to write home about. A first impression imprinted on the memories of popular stand football fanatics. It is my hope that something will be done about the situation as soon as now. It shouldn’t also be seen at the Cape Coast Stadium because the embarrassment is enough!