Accra or a kraal?

Somebody should tell me what is going on.  Accra and other major cities in Ghana are gaining notoriety for stray and roaming livestock, the latest being herds of cattle. I mean herds of cattle parading along major streets and roaming in communities and residential areas strictly reserved for humans.

Capital cities are the pride of many countries. In today’s global village, many countries pride themselves in having neat, well-laid out capitals. The stunning aerial view of Paris in France and Johannesburg in South Africa will draw emotional tears from ones eyes.

Even the poorest of countries strive to keep their capital cities worthy of their status, putting them on the tourist maps as preferred destinations for holiday makers.

Accra, the capital and the most populous city in Ghana, had an estimated urban population of 2.27 million as of 2012. Still expanding in all directions, except the Atlantic Ocean, the entire Greater-Accra metropolitan area is inhabited by about four million people and is the thirteenth-largest metropolitan area in Africa. Bathed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Accra, by all standards, should be one of the most-relaxing coastal cities along the Gulf of Guinea. With an ever-teeming population, the last kind of guests that the residents of Accra would want to host are roaming herds of cattle, sheep, pigs and goats, many of which are sick-looking, dirty and  foul the city with their urine, dripping saliva and droppings.

Somebody should tell me what is going on. Have the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) forgotten that diseases can be transmitted between animals and humans? Zoonoses are infectious diseases of animals that can naturally be transmitted to humans. Zoonotic diseases may be acquired or spread via a variety of ways: through the air (aerosol), by direct contact, by contact with an inanimate object that harbours the disease (fomite transmission), by oral ingestion, and by insect transmission. With respect to cattle, sheep and goats, notorious zoonoses include anthrax, brucellosis, cryptosporidiosis, dermatophilosis, Escherichia coli, giardiasis, leptospirosis, listeriosis, pseudo-cowpox, Q fever, rabies, ringworm, salmonellosis, tuberculosis, and vesicular stomatitis. Only God knows how many Ghanaians and other nationals have succumbed to death through these infections.

If these science-based facts about diseases of animal origin are true, then why have the MMDAs closed their eyes to this obvious threat to public health and safety by failing to apply their bye-laws to check the livestock invasion of the city of Accra and other cities in the country?

Accra is not a low populated rural setting; neither is Accra a ranch. Accra is one of the most modern cities in the world. How low do we want to sink in the eyes of the international community? The appointments of city mayors and DCEs with  accompanying jubilations are over. Let the appointees settle behind their desks and move into the communities to apply the whips of bye-laws to check these animal behaviours. Obviously, the cows, sheep, goats and pigs have owners who are known by the MMDAs.

Pretend no more! I want to live and work in Accra, not in a Kraal. Let us stop this shame now, lest one day, some activists petition Parliament for legal backing for cows, pigs, sheep and goats to live and roam in Kraal; I mean Accra.