Can Accra become the cleanest city in Africa?

The newspaper spaces, the screens of televisions, and the airwaves are replete with reports of filth that has engulfed the city of Accra.There are also daily reports about the deteriorating waste management regime in the country.

For those who have lived in Accra for decades, such reports may not be newsworthy any more. However, any first time visitor to the capital city will stand in awe of the sight that will greet him.

Filth

Let the doubting Thomases visit notable markets and business centres such as Agbogbloshie, London Market at James Town, Abossey Okai, CMB, Mallam Atta, Kaneshie, and Tema Station.The adamant ones may as well visit slum communities such as Old Fadama, Nima, Zongo, Ashaiman, and Chorkor; then, they will appreciate the essence of this piece.

At the market centres, businesses of flies are giving traders a good run for their money as both parties compete for vegetables, meat, fish, and other foodstuff.The gutters are pregnant with filth. The shoulders of the roads are yielding to the incessant pressure from piles of rubbish. Drains and market centres are fast turning into mountains of refuse dumps. Culverts and overpasses at vantage points in the capital city are increasingly becoming a hub for refuse, while the Odaw river continue to swell with foreign materials dumped into it.

The sea and other water bodies are suffocating from tonnes of waste that washed into it as a result of the indiscriminate dumping of refuse by members of the public.

The ugly figures

It is stunning to know that Accra was ranked as the most polluted city on earth, according to numbeo.com, a website that tracks several countries with respect to developmental challenges such as pollution, health, and crime.

According to the pollution survey report released in 2016, Accra led with a pollution index of 102.13 whilst Lebanon's Beirut followed closely with 97.71.

Even before the situation got this worse, Ghana had slipped on its sanitation performance globally to become the world’s 7th worst performing country, according to a 2015 report.

The Joint Monitoring Programme report dubbed “Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Assessment,” was a collaboration between the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The 2014 report of the same entities ranked Ghana as the 10th worst performer on sanitation coverage.

Current figures at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) show that the capital city generates more than 3,000 metric tonnes of waste daily. The nerve-wrecking statistics vis-a-vis the growing indiscipline among members of the public in the management of waste raises eyebrows.

Cleanest city

It has been about five months since the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, made a historic declaration to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa by the end of his tenure in office. President Akufo-Addo made that declaration on April 23, this year, when the President of the Ngleshie Alata Traditional Council, Oblempong Nii Kojo Ababio V, together with the Chiefs and people of Jamestown, enstooled him as a Chief of Jamestown, with the stool name "Nii Kwaku Ablade Okogyeaman.”

“The commitment I want to make, and for all of us to make, is that by the end of my term in office, Accra will be the cleanest city on the entire African continent. That is the commitment I am making to you,” these were the President's words.

The question then is "can the anchor of the President's quest to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa hold in the midst of the deteriorating sanitation challenge?" Where is the roadmap to achieving that feat?

The AMA roadmap

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the AMA, Numo Blafo III, indicated in an interview that the city authority had a comprehensive road map in place to making the city clean.

Apart from the revival of sanitation courts in the capital city to enforce sanctions on people who commit sanitation infractions, the AMA has also started constructing transfer stations at strategic locations in Accra to ensure efficient waste management.

"Three of such transfer stations have been constructed at Achimota, New Town, and Mallam Interchange while others are to be constructed at the Dansoman, Korle Bu Mortuary Road, and the Osu areas," Numo Blafo explained.

The sub-metros within the AMA have been charged to come out with specific plans that will address peculiar sanitation challenges within their jurisdiction, while waste management contractors have also been assigned to the sub-metros.

Residents in the sub-metros are expected to register with the contractors for the waste they generate to be evacuated using tricycles to the transfer stations. Heavy trucks will then be used to convey the waste to the two dumping sites at Kpone and the Nsawam area respectively. Another component of the roadmap is the launch of a pro bono AMA Sanitation Newspaper, an initiative to discourage people from posting bills on walls and mounting banners in the city. The initiative will be a platform for individuals, groups, institutions and other entities to advertise their products free of charge.

“The AMA wants to start prosecuting people who destroy the beauty of the city by posting bills on walls and erecting banners. But we cannot do that without providing an alternative medium for such people. When we kick start the paper, anyone who commit those infractions will be severely sanctioned to deter others," Numo Blafo stressed.

Hawkers

Apart from the huge sanitation challenge, the activities of hawkers who have turned the shoulders of major roads, streets, and even overpasses into their warehouses is still a tall mountain for the city authority to climb.

The Road Traffic Regulations (LI 2180, 2012) gives the Ghana Police Service the mandate to check the activities of hawkers. The regulation debars a person from selling, displaying, offering for sale, goods on or along the roads or on pedestrian walkways.

This regulation however seems to have been given lip service. Hawkers have defied the provisions of this regulation due to weak enforcement from the police, perhaps, due to political factors. Way forward

The road map to making Accra the cleanest city in Africa will come to nought if there are no efforts concerted involving all stakeholders. It is a matter of education, awareness creation, and personal commitment to be ambassadors of a cleaner Accra.

The faith-based organisations (FBOs), public and private institutions, the security agencies, the politicians, and all well-meaning citizens have a stake in making the city clean.

If we have to win the battle against filth and make Accra the cleanest city in Africa, all hands ought to be on the deck. The whip must be cracked on persons who act irresponsibly on matters of sanitation. It is not enough to stay away from indiscriminate dumping of refuse. It is our responsibility to ensure that the person next to you is not compromising on the quality of the environment.

The catchphrase is "attitudinal change." Until we all begin to see waste management and improved sanitation as everybody's responsibility, we will continue hunger and thirst for cleanliness in our capital city.

Writer’s email: ngnenbetimothy @gmail.com