We need a change in attitude to improve sanitation
It has been raining in Accra and other parts of the country since last weekend, which suggests that the rainy season has begun.
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The irony, however, is that although the natural thing that should happen when there is rainfall is to see clean streets, it is rather the opposite that happens.
The streets and water channels, especially in Accra, are always left with litter after every rainfall, thereby exposing the insanitary conditions that continue to persist, despite interventions such as the National Sanitation Day (NSD) that has been instituted to rid the country of filth.
The filth that collects on the streets, in water bodies and at the beaches after every rainfall is largely made up of plastic bottles, black plastic carrier bags and empty water sachets.
Many people posit that there could be many NSD exercises but they would not be able to rid our streets, rivers and communities of filth if they are not complemented with attitudinal change.
The Daily Graphic finds it worrying that some people still see the job of ensuring a clean environment as the preserve of a certain group of people — sanitation workers.
Therefore, we have made the exception rather the norm. Sanitary workers such as staffs of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (EHSD) of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and waste management companies are supposed to complement the efforts of the citizenry in ensuring environmental cleanliness, but now members of the public think that it is rather the duty of the sanitary workers to make our environment clean and tidy.
That is a misnomer, and until we, as a people, take it upon ourselves not only to ensure good environmental sanitation but also cultivate habits that restrain us from littering the environment, we will always find ourselves in messy surroundings.
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We have gradually become a ‘dirty’ people because of our poor attitude towards the environment and this is compounded by the plastic used to package many products.
Almost all the drinks and water produced by beverage companies are packaged in either plastic or polythene. Even most local food producers wrap their food in plastic bags for customers.
Although the government and all stakeholders have tried to find a solution to the plastic waste that has engulfed the country with the introduction of a policy that demands that plastic producers add Oxo-biodegradable material to enable the plastic to decompose easily after use and disposal, that will take a long time to have any significant effect.
The filth is one of the major causes of floods in our cities whenever it rains because it chokes the drains, as well as silt the water courses that have been constructed to carry off running water.
Wetlands, which are nature’s own way of dealing with excess water so that there are no floods, have also been encroached upon by developers or become silted as a result of indiscriminate littering.
The government has invested and is still investing so much money to de-silt storm drains such as the Odaw drain in Accra and heavily silted lagoons such as the Korle.
Other drains that have also been dredged are the Mampong, Sukura, Kaneshie, South Kaneshie and Achimota-Apenkwa drains, at great cost to the nation, but the impact of the work can only be felt if residents desist from throwing waste into open drains.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, urges the public to desist from throwing litter about and also calls on the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to implement their sanitation bye-laws and prosecute offenders to serve as a deterrent to others.