Open drain poses health hazard

An abandoned open drain being constructed close to the offices of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) Municipality at Elmina, is posing a serious health challenge to subscribers and residents of the area.

The situation is said to add to the woes of these subscribers who defy sleep and throng to the NHIS office as early as 0200 hrs to secure their National Health Insurance (NHI) cards, with some reportedly sleeping at the NHIS premises overnight for quick attention.

The place has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and a dumping ground for refuse by residents with its accompanying stench posing an environmental hazard and threat to human life, particularly children.

A visit to the premises of the NHIS which also houses some traders on the ground floor by the GNA revealed that people around were exposed to the incessant whining and bites of large mosquitoes from the drain.

The elderly, nursing mothers, pregnant women, children and other subscribers alike, as well as residents were exposed to attacks by the mosquitoes and other insects.

One woman who had wrapped herself and her two children in cloth said she had to do so to prevent mosquito bites adding that she was at the office by 0400 hrs with the children to get their cards and renew hers after three failed attempts.

“Would it not be a waste of time and money for one to acquire a National Health Insurance card only to be infected by malaria and other diseases,? she asked.

Another resident who sells in front of the office and close to the drain told the GNA that it was a KEEA Municipal Assembly project that had been abandoned.

Asked why she chose to trade close to the drain, she explained that she had no option than to brave the threats that the open drain poses to her health just to make ends meet.

She said sometimes she had to personally reprimand children who got close to the drain to play and she feared if the drain was not completed immediately, it could soon become a death trap for children.

Mr. Felix Korankyi-Taylor, the KEEA Municipal Engineer, has confirmed the story and said the project had stalled for the past two months because funds that were raised by their sister-city development partner, Gouda of Holland, to construct the project, had run out.