• A resident of Sakaman, Mr Victor Schaffer standing near the dump

Mallam Market sitting on time bomb

Naa Lamiley Bentil Mar - 25 - 2015 , 23:55 5 minutes read

If conditions in Ghana's biggest slum, Sodom and Gommorah is appalling, then the mountain of refuse and an emerging ghetto in the heart of the thriving Mallam Market, near Dansoman, can be described as outrageous. With the onset of the rains, the worse is feared for the health of both traders and customers.

Conditions in the sprawling Mallam Market, situated close to the Mallam-Kaneshie highway, is shielded from the public by canopies raised by the traders to protect them against the harsh weather. But a closer look reveals the dirty environment in which the traders sell their wares.

It requires the dexterity of a regular visitor to be able to manoeuvre their way into the market from its southern end through Sakaman. Even though the way into the market is short through there, one has to be surefooted to make his or her way around pig sties and cattle farms in order not to stumble or fall into animal droppings.

One cannot miss the foul stench on approaching the market, emanating from decayed food products carelessly strewn about and also from a dump site just outside the market. The smell becomes unbearable on days when a bulldozer comes in to dislodge the waste into refuse trucks.

The Mallam Market is situated on a wetland which used to be an internationally recognised bird sanctuary. According to sources, over 350,000 tonnes of laterite was dumped at the site in order to reclaim the land for the establishment of the market.

Dangers

Needless to say that conditions at the market pose real environmental and health challenges. Among the dangers include contaminated food, air and underground water which have both become polluted and a choked drainage system which leads to severe flooding anytime it rains heavily.

A number of traders interviewed said they had developed respiratory infections as a result of inhaling the foul stench in the market daily.

At the moment, the drain leading to the market from Kaneshie which carries runoff waste water into the wetland is choked with waste.

And because the refuse dump in the market is not engineered leachate (a dark, poisonous liquid from a dumpsite or landfill) freely flows into the environment.

According to a German resident in Sakaman, Mr Victor Schaefer, leachate from the dump had become a poisonous trap for many animals in the area.

He said six out of his eight dogs died last year after drinking water from the ground which had been contaminated with leachate from the dump.

"All my new puppies now have ringworm because the drainage system in the entire area is blocked and ground water is highly polluted. The dump site must be closed immediately and the refuse heap evacuated to protect residents and customers from needless diseases and infections", he said.

Traders disagree

But the executive of the market saw nothing untoward in reclaiming the wetland to build a market.

According to the Secretary of the Mallam Market Traders Association, Madam Naa Oboshie Torgbor, the association bought the parcel of land from the Gbawe Stool about 18 years ago and had since been reclaiming it gradually.

She said, unlike other markets in the metropolis, the Mallam Market did not receive any support from the government.

According to the executive, both the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA) were aware of the reclamation activity.

They said the AMA had been supporting the association to spray the dumpsite to check flies and mosquitoes.

ESPA wants dump closed

But the Executive Secretary to the Environmental Services Providers Association (ESPA), Ms Ama Ofori Antwi, wants the dump closed immediately.

"Residents in and around the western parts of Accra, particularly in Dansoman are sitting on an environmental time bomb with regards to their health," she said after observing at first hand the huge volumes of garbage that had been dumped behind the market.

Ms Ofori Antwi described the current situation at the Mallam Market as a serious breach of acceptable environmental standards.

"How can we sell foodstuffs in such an insanitary condition?

"We must not wait for the worse to happen before we look for solution. The time to act is now", she said.

She attributed the dump site activities to boys who operated the 'kaya boola' mode of refuse collection. He said they found the site behind the market favourable because they were unable to make the 90-km round trip from Accra to the Kpone Landfill Site to dump refuse.

Currently, Accra does not have a landfill site and has been depending on the only engineered landfill at Kpone, near Tema.

She said the responsibility was now on the Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Authority, Mr Alfred Oko Vanderpuye, to fulfil his promise to provide the ESPA with a landfill and transfer stations in order to halt the degradation of the wetland at Dansoman.

She urged the national security apparatus to intervene to halt further dumping and also called on the Vice-President, Mr Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, who had shown interest in sanitation issues to assist to close the site down.