Some workers of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) are in intense distress as all the four toilet facilities in the old Assembly building housing the Electrical Department, a Circuit Court and Fire Service have not been functioning for the past twelve years.
Most worrying of the unthinkable phenomenon was the fact that officials of these departments, for the past years have turned the backyard of the malfunctioning toilets of the Assembly as a place of convenience, a situation that poses severe health hazard and imminent source of epidemics.
An employee of the Assembly, worried about the situation, who wants to remain anonymous, told The Al-Hajj that due to the absence of a functioning toilet at the Assembly, prominent persons including neatly dressed lawyers in their suits and ties, and nicely clothed in gowns who come to the Kumasi Circuit Court also join the fray in amenably easing themselves at the back of the broken down toilet whenever they feel like attending to nature’s call.
Aside this reprehensible and disturbing phenomenon, a source at the Assembly disclosed to this paper that “sometimes you see respectable men and women squatting close to each other and easing themselves at the same time.”
According to sources, the obscene situation has compelled not just the workers of the Assembly to openly defecate at the “unauthorized place,” but litigants, officials of the Kumasi Circuit Court and personnel of the KMA Fire Service station also ‘compete’ with their counterparts from the Assembly to ease themselves there.
“The situation here is just a disgrace to an Assembly like KMA… can you imagine that sometimes even Lawyers and Fire Service personnel also defecate here? I don’t blame them because aside this place, there is no other place for them to ease themselves… we have been grappling with this problem for the past twelve years, but nothing seems to be done about it,” the source added.
The scene at the dilapidated toilet facility could only pass as an eyesore as the roofs of the toilet facilities are completely worn out, with the toilet facilities engulfed in refuse and overgrown with weeds, while the surroundings are littered, the walls broken, and the doors either removed or hanging.
Surprisingly, the facility, which sources at the assembly say was built some years back, but has since not tasted any renovation, is located less than 200 metres away from the new administrated block of the KMA, an inkling that shows that officials of the assembly can see the sordid situation from their various offices.
Due to the messy nature of the place, members of the public have taken advantage of it and have turned the site into a refuse dump; a development the source said does not befit an Assembly located in the capital city of Ghana’s second largest region.
The source added that the stench emanating from the unfortunate scene sometimes force the workers of the Electrical Department of the Assembly to abandon work and seek refuge in adjourning stores close to the KMA building.
Meanwhile, when The Al-Hajj contacted the Mayor of Kumasi, Kojo Bonsu, he expressed surprise at the situation, saying “I’m not aware of what you are saying, but I will take a look at it… I don’t know if what you are saying is true or not, but since you have drawn my attention to it, I will look at it and get it fixed if it turns out that what you are saying is true.”
