Vicky Wireko : Ghana at bottom of world’s worst sanitation pile? The writings were on the wall
According to a story published by the Daily Graphic on July 22, 2015, Ghana slipped further on its sanitation performance globally in 2015, thus landing us as the 7th dirtiest country in the world.
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This was contained in a report, “Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment”, jointly issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund. Ghana was only ahead of Madagascar and five other African countries including South Sudan, Niger, Chad, Togo and Sierra Leone.
Is the report saying that the efforts at total national sanitation with political and traditional leadership involvement as encouragement to the people have all become photo opportunities?
Below are excerpts from my article of January 23, 2013, entitled, “Achieving better sanitation – Mr Minister, please give the assemblies stringent targets”. The article which could easily be described as prophetic revelation and first published in this column, sought to highlight then, the country’s sanitation situation, suggesting performance targets for the assemblies.
Sanitation performance targets for MMDAs
“How, as a concerned Ghanaian, I wish that every appointed CEO of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) would be given realistic targets on good sanitation by the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and get pinned down to achieving them with regular quarterly reviews.
I have been scratching my head three weeks into the new year and asking questions on the performances of our Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies lately as screaming headlines on despicable sanitation and its resultant effects on the health of the people have taken centre stage.
Millennium Development goals
In just two years, our country would be measured against our performance vis-à-vis the Millennium Development Goals. Thankfully, with the help of some private entities, we are set to achieve some of the targets. One, however, is apprehensive of the specific goal on sanitation.
We seem to be failing with sanitation and the hope of achieving our goal towards a clean environment seems to be eluding us. The pictures we saw the other week on the dumping site in Achimota that grabbed the headlines was startling. It was startling because we were seeing that the same regrettable scenes and the promises to stamp them out from inner city dwellings have not happened so far.
Sanitation issues
Accra alone, according to estimates, is said to generate 2,200 tonnes of garbage daily. In my humble estimation, this can easily fill the Accra Sports Stadium. Elsewhere, the waste would have been transformed into sources of energy, manure or recycled for other commercial gains. Why is it taking us this long when we have so many universities to research and think for us?
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If sanitation became part of the performance targets for chief executives of MMDAs there is ample reason to believe that all concerned, would commit efforts to finding out what it takes to achieve better sanitation than we are seeing now.
I agree totally with the acting Northern Regional Environmental Health Officer, Ms Martha Tia-Adjei, who, at a Community- Led Total Sensitisation consensus building workshop last week, threw the challenge to the various MMDAs to help arrest the deplorable sanitation situation in the country.
According to a report carried by the Daily Graphic of January 16, 2013, the acting Regional Environmental officer challenged the MMDAs not only to concern themselves with the enactment of sanitation bye-laws but ensure that those who violated them were duly sanctioned.
How difficult is it to outlaw open defecation, urinating and indiscriminate littering of the environment for example? Yet, everybody knows that they are the worse forms of environmental pollution. We see people doing the acts unashamedly and with impunity because no one is committed to pushing the agenda to curb the wrongs.
Waste management
This year’s New Year School which ended a few days ago has raised some concerns in our national management of waste. The School has made clear the concerns of every Ghanaian on the issue of effective management of waste in this country. The numerous policy interventions have been left on shelves and gathering dust.
We need the speedy implementation of all those policies and plans to get Ghana approach its waste management with seriousness and professionalism. The Chief Executive Officer of Zoomlion Company Limited could not have put it better as the keynote speaker at the just-ended New Year School held at the University of Ghana, Legon, when he called for a greater commitment to policy interventions to deal with water and sanitation challenges and their consequence on health.”
So, following the joint report of the WHO and the UN Children’s Fund on sanitation progress, what next? Who will save Ghana from further sanitation embarrassment come 2016?
vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com