Let’s clean Ghana

“Filth has engulfed the country to our national shame. This is troubling because a healthy environment is a healthy nation. All media houses, private sector entities, and stakeholders must join the campaign to rid the country of filth as was the case with the war on illegal mining last year.”

These were the words of the acting Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Ransford Tetteh,in his welcome address at the sanitation forum organised by the company on March 9, 2018.

Speakers at the forum including the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, the Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies, Mr Joseph Siaw-Agyepong, and the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, unanimously agreed that filth had overwhelmed the country but called for an attitudinal change to address the menace.

The ugly picture

From homes, school compounds, market places, the streets, the premises of state and public institutions, churches and mosques, to the beaches, all forms of waste is disposed of with impunity.

A visit to market places such as Agbogbloshie, Odawna, Mallam Atta, Kaneshie, as well as slum communities including Old Fadama, Chorkor, Nima, paints an ugly picture of filth in the country.

The least said about the piles of rubbish that find its way into the belly of the heavily polluted Odaw River and the sea, the better.

Even as indiscriminate dumping of refuse by the public causes huge chunks of solid, liquid, electronic and plastic waste daily, the poor management of this waste remains a big wound on the country that is yet to be given the right medicine to heal.

In many parts of the capital city, it is common to see open drains that are overgrown with weeds thereby hindering the free flow of running water.

The situation even gets worse because refuse that is dumped indiscriminately finds its way into open drains and get them choked. Along the coastal areas of the country, the beaches which ought to be tourist attraction and a safe haven for revellers have been converted to safe havens for open defecation.

The city of Accra hosts what has been ranked the biggest site for scrap metal, located close to the Korle Lagoon Restoration project that adjoins the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) off the Korle Bu Mortuary road.

Huge volumes of electronic waste are generated at this site while gases emanating from the burning of the metals to extract copper and other useful matter pollute the air and pose as health challenges.

The Hazardous and Electronic Waste Control Management Bill 2016 was passed by Parliament requiring manufacturers and importers of electronics, excluding state agencies, to register with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and to pay levies that would go into a fund for the collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal of electronic waste.

Despite this e-waste law, the country is grappling with the proper management of electronic waste.

Figures

It is estimated that 20,000 tonnes of waste is generated across the country daily with the city of Accra alone accounting for far in excess of 3,000 tonnes of the filth.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 2017, also revealed that 17.69 per cent of plastic waste materials generated annually in the country finds its way into the ocean while 0.45 per cent of electronic waste and 4.92 per cent of glass material also contaminate water bodies including the sea.

The increasing incidence of filth in the country and the poor management of waste has caused sanitary-related diseases, which has resulted in a number of deaths and affected the quality of the country’s labour force. For instance, figures at the Ghana Health Service (GHS) show that out of the 50,000 cases of cholera that were recorded worldwide, Ghana alone accounted for 28,000.

Interventions

Since 2015, the last Saturday of every month has been observed as National Sanitation Day, with government officials leading clean-up exercises at the national, regional and district levels.

A ministry for Sanitation and Water Resources has also been created, with GH¢200,000 allocated to tackle sanitation challenge head on.

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, made an ambitious declaration to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa.

The A.M.A. in particular has rolled out a number of initiatives, including a door-to-door and communal collection service of waste for households and communities.

In collaboration with environmental service providers such as Zoomlion Ghana Limited and Jekorah Ventures, the use of motorised tricycles and trucks for collecting refuse from one point to the other until it gets to the final destination at landfill sites has become the order of the day.

The A.M.A. has also carried out decongestion exercises in major areas of the city and set up sanitation courts at strategic locations to put the fear of God in sanitation offenders.

Metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) across the country also have by-laws and strategies for improving sanitation and preserving the quality of the environment.

However, the waste management value chain has not been as effective and efficient as it ought to be because the emphasis has not been placed on value addition to turn the refuse into a resource.

Sesa wo suban

The launch of the Clean Ghana Campaign, an initiative by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources and its stakeholder agencies with a focus to mobilise all stakeholders across the country to clean the country, is more than timely.

If we have to see a clean Ghana and an Accra as the cleanest city in Africa, then there is the need for a deliberate change of attitude not to litter the environment.

The school pupil should be taught that the only place to drop refuse is the dustbin. The coconut seller should make it his responsibility to clear any waste he creates before he leaves for the house.

It is equally important for the butcher, the market woman, the dealer in scrap metal, and the fisherman to say no to filth to keep Ghana clean.

Even more critical, the chief executive officer (CEO), the lawyer, the minister and the President need to make personal commitment to be responsible to the environment.

This calls for the strict enforcement of the laws on sanitation and sanctioning of deviants to deter others.

Conclusion

The move by the government to set up the National Sanitation Fund and the National Sanitation Authority to guarantee the sustainable source of funds and coordination of efforts to rid the country of filth is commendable.

However, these efforts, including moves to recruit sanitation marshals and crusaders across the MMDAs, will be a wild goose chase if we fail to change our attitudes towards waste management.

A call to rid the country of filth is a call on every Tom, Dick and Harry to be an ambassador of the Clean Ghana Campaign, for, cleanliness is next to Godliness.