Stop this trend of mediocrity
A joint World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) progress report on sanitation and drinking water was issued on June 30, 2015.
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This was the 2015 update and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) assessment. In it, Ghana was rated the world’s seventh worst performing country in terms of sanitation. We were barely ahead of war-torn countries such as Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Chad.
The report might as well have said we were the dirtiest country in the world. It is worth noting that we actually retrogressed in the area of sanitation. In the 2014 report, we were the 10th worst performer.
Open defaecation and filth
I hope we are not going to attempt to dispute these findings also as we did with the OECD report on the quality of our technical education because the evidence is overwhelming. We openly defaecate on our otherwise pristine beaches instead of cleaning them to attract the enormous tourist dollars they could bring in. Human faeces wrapped in plastic bags can be seen dumped in open spaces.
Early in the morning, some of us openly ease ourselves in open spaces even here in Accra without the slightest feeling of guilt. It appears we are still living in the Stone Age.
On August 3, 2015, I went to buy some newspapers in Tema. Next to the newspaper vendor was a lady selling fruits and vegetables. When I got there, she was clearing a small bush behind where she was plying her trade.
Lo and behold, scattered in the bush were parcels of human faeces in black plastic bags! No wonder we are regularly ravaged by diseases liksuch ase cholera.
Engulfed in filth
Our country is engulfed in filth. We talk about it regularly and do nothing but add to it. Nature exacts brutal retribution every year for this attitude but we remain unrepentant. Just last June, over 150 of our compatriots lost their lives in floods and fire as a result of choked drains and illegal settlements. Was that sufficient to see a dramatic change in our behaviour? I am not certain.
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Solution to open defaecation
The problem of open defaecation is simply due to the lack of adequate toilet facilities both in homes and in public places. Meanwhile, the solution to this problem is directly under our noses: the Biological Filters Toilet Treatment System or Biofil Toilet System.
This is technology developed in Ghana by Ghanaians and is available for use to solve the Ghanaian open defaecation problem. The Biofil Digester is a simple compact on-site organic waste treatment system (see attached picture).
It consists of a small digester containing a filtration system that rapidly filters off the liquids from the toilet discharge. The remaining solid waste is aerobically decomposed by biological agents introduced into the digester.
The filtered liquid can be used to water your garden or discharged directly to drain. You never have to suck out any accumulated liquid from the digester because there is no such accumulation. It is ideal for the mass construction of toilet facilities throughout our towns and cities, in homes, offices, schools, hospitals and public places.
I can attest to the efficacy of this system because I have used it in an apartment block I constructed in Accra three years ago and the occupants love it.
I would not be surprised to learn that the city authorities are aware of this system but have chosen to do nothing over the years prompting the WHO to give us the unenviable designation of seventh filthiest country in the world. If they need further information on this system, they can contact me on the email at the end of this article and I will gladly direct them to the manufacturer.
Lately, we appear to be catching world headlines for all the wrong reasons. In May, 2015 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report of a worldwide survey of the performance of pupils in the 15-year-age group in their understanding of basic concepts in Science and Mathematics.
Of the 76 countries surveyed in which we were included, we ranked last.
Our ratings for the Corruption Perception Index among 175 countries of the world in the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 were 45, 46 and 61 respectively. We are sliding in this area also. The larger the number, the higher the corruption perception and our numbers are getting larger.
In 2011, a survey report by Forbes Magazine listed Ghana at number nine among the top 10 most mismanaged economies in the world. We protested vehemently but four years down the line, our currency is in free fall and we are in the international market shopping for loans.
Given this trail of mediocrity reported about us by renowned world organisations, are we as a people willing to use these reports as a wake-up call to change our circumstances?
I hope the recent launch of the National Development Planning Process will galvanise all Ghanaians to wake up and be part of the development process irrespective of political, religious or ethnic affiliation. We need all hands on deck.
E-mail: norbenne1@yahoo.com