Why Akufo Addo must tackle beach sanitation with all seriousness

Last weekend my visit to see how dirty our beaches are, raw untreated latrine being dumped into the sea, which is very dangerous to our health.

The continuous littering of waste which chokes our gutters goes untreated and finally run into water bodies and above all the beaches.

The coasts in the country were plagued with several problems, especially the persistent problem of solid and liquid waste disposal.

Human activities on the beach go from picnicking to swimming, from mining sand to fishing. Any of these activities might impact the beach environment positively or negatively.

Poor sanitation along the beach pollutes the environment and atmosphere and this inevitably leads to the outbreak of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid malaria and other perilous diseases which have claimed many precious lives of the past and still claiming the lives of many poor children and adults.

And this goes a long way to retard economic development since a lot of money is wasted by the government in treating these diseases.

During Kingdomfmonline.com visit to some surroundings along some beaches in Accra, we captured plastic waste engulfing the area. Diapers and other solid waste was also a part of this sanitation problem.

Increase in contamination of coastal waters from local populations and indiscriminate disposal of plastic bags and garbage in public areas along the beach.

But the country isn’t doing so well when it comes to improved sanitation. Ghana is among the worst countries in the world when it comes to access to improved basic sanitation.

By cleaning the beach, the government must improve the sanitation situation at the beach and improve the livelihood of the fishermen.

A clean beach also gives the opportunity for beach lovers to enjoy their recreation.

The Coastal Sanitation is also aimed at enhancing sanitation at fishing communities in the country.

Therefore, there is the need to ensure hygienic sanitation conditions at the landing beaches, and fishing communities in general, so that the fishing industry could take advantage out there, in terms of export of fish, and earn incomes for themselves and the country.

All governments have failed to make the capital city clean, their efforts were only cosmetic and did not actually yield any benefit due to the lack of infrastructure.

I plead with people to shun the act of defecating on the shores since the beaches hold the potential of attracting tourists and generating income for the communities.