Time to revere water bodies
My fear of water bodies started during my infancy, when my uncle drowned. The news of his death started as a rumour in the family house at Atwima Koforidua around dawn when he failed to return home from a fishing expedition in the Owabi River.
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He might have been 20 or a little above that age, and I was so fond of him. I saw him going out that morning and was expecting him back in the afternoon to play with him as usual, but that was not to be as that day was the last I saw the life in him.
His death might have been the first I witnessed in the family and I still remember every detail of the funeral rites as if it happened just yesterday.
Strangers and members from the neighbourhood trooping into the family house in their numbers, the still body of my uncle wrapped in a white linen in a wooden box, the sullen faces of men seated in rows , the dirges of women who went around the body as if they were singing war songs, and the lifting of the coffin that contained the body increased my fear of water bodies.
I made several attempts to know the details of the cause of the death of uncle Yaw Tawiah, but anytime I brought up the subject, my grandfather who was my godfather looked at me scornfully, thus putting me in an uneasy calm and causing total unrest to my little mind.
My aunties and uncles who could have unravelled the mystery behind the death of my uncle were not helpful either, so gradually I banished it from my mind. The incident occurred over four decades ago, at a time children held the elderly in reverence.
Fear of water bodies
That incident also induced in me a certain fear of water bodies as a teenager, such that anytime I came across streams, rivers, lakes and oceans, my mind reverted to my uncle and his funeral, thus putting me in a state of unrest.
My profession as a journalist almost 20 years ago, however, started thawing out my fear of water bodies as it offered me a semblance of hope that they are not as deadly as I used to think.
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The serene atmosphere I witnessed at the Barekese and Owabi dams, which have become tourist sites and a source of research for academicians , as well as the history behind the creation of the Bosomtwe Lake and its accolade as the gateway to tourism in the Ashanti Region, whet my appetite for the visit to water bodies at the least opportunity.
Ironically, while water bodies in the hinterlands such as waterfalls, lakes and dams have become receptacles for the communion of holidaymakers and researchers over the years, thus generating much revenue to sustain accelerated socio-economic development in Ghana, our coastlines in Accra and other parts which should have been complementing such revenue generation have rather been turned into receptacles of solid and liquid waste.
Open defecation
It is an open secret that open defecation along our coastlines has contributed immensely to the upsurge in cholera outbreaks in Accra in particular, and was the cause of the death of over 200 residents last year, but so far, the metropolitan assembly, the Ministry of Environment and state apparatus which should have halted this canker have turned a blind eye.
In some instances, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly supervises the pumping of faeces into the ocean, a situation that denies it the moral right to implement bye-laws, which bind landlords to construct household toilets to curb the menace of open defecation along the coastal areas.
In neighbouring countries and elsewhere in the world, coastal areas, banks of rivers and other water bodies are cherished and considered expensive sites to reside. But in Ghana, such areas are dumping grounds for solid and liquid waste.
In her article titled “Open defecation-a shameful letdown” published in the November 25, 2015 edition of the Daily Graphic, Vicky Wireko, a columnist, indicated, “Listening to a GBC radio news bulletin on November 19, 2015, I was disappointed to hear Ghana ranked second after Sudan, as having the worst open defecation record in Africa.”
Hear her, “Earlier this year, Ghana was ranked seventh dirtiest country in the world, and now it is open defecation”.
Gateway to Africa
It is quite sarcastic that while the state sits on the fence and allows a section of the citizenry to litter the coastlines and other water bodies with faeces with impunity, which eventually creates health hazards for many, state officials mount public platforms and shout loud that Ghana is the gateway to Africa.
Household toilets
Commenting about the state of dirt in the country and its implications for the health of the citizenry, the President of Friends of Rivers and Water Bodies, Nana Dwomo Sarpong, said household toilets were key to the promotion of good health, hence the recognition of world toilet day by the United Nations General Assembly.
“Countries with household toilets and proper sanitation have good health, and this enhances productivity and income generation,” he said.
Wondering why Ghana has not been able to stop open defecation over the years, he said it had serious social and financial implications.
“Besides spending millions of cedis to treat people infected with cholera, many people who could have contributed to revenue generation die from cholera and other water-borne diseases,” he explained.
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Expressing concern about lack of public places of convenience in urban centres across the country, he said the absence of such facilities had also undermined our quest of instilling good sanitary conditions in the country.
“Open defecation has environmental, health and economic ramifications, so the sector ministries should collaborate with other stakeholders to address this national canker once and for all to curb the insanitary conditions at the coastal areas.
“Addressing this insanitary situation where landlords divert their manholes into streams and other water bodies is a holistic approach, which should not be the work of the Ministry of Local Government alone,” he suggested.
“The time has come to take people in trusted positions to task for their failure to discharge their duties with precision. They are paid to perform duties that will promote good health to the citizenry, so they should be punished if they fail to discharge their core responsibilities. The ordinary Ghanaian should not be interested in politics alone. They should begin to put pressure on people placed in responsible positions for them to discharge their roles more meaningfully, and this include creating good sanitation in our environment to enable us to lead healthy lifestyles,” Nana Sarpong challenged..
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A few years ago, water bodies across the country were revered and adored, but now, our future looks very bleak. This is because we are not only destroying all water bodies through illegal mining, but also polluting them through the dumping of solid and liquid waste.
The future generation is, therefore, likely to hold us in contempt and hurl curses at us if we continue to treat water bodies with such carelessness. They will see us as squanderers of their sources of livelihood, hence the need to halt the wanton destruction of water bodies now.