Tema Station losing fight against cleanliness
Traders at the Tema Station transport yard in Accra have expressed displeasure over the sanitation situation in and around the station.
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According to them, poor sanitation and other environmental problems at the station were fast becoming an obstruction to their operations.
According to some commuters and customers, the situation was currently making the use of the facility tedious as they had to endure foul stench arising from decaying matter.
The situation
On a visit to the station, the Daily Graphic observed that the sanitation situation was conspicuously bad both within and outside the station.
The whole place reeks of urine even though mobile lavatories have been mounted at vantage points for use by commuters, drivers and traders for a fee of GHp10 for children and GHp20 for adults.
However, some drivers and their mates and members of the public urinate into the gutters in and around the station without shame.
Besides the discomfort posed by the insanitary conditions, the casual attitude of some people who patronise the station, especially head porters (Kayayei), is worrying.
Just at the entrance of the station, the head porters sit unconcerned to feed their children right by a maggot-infested gutter.
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Traders unhappy
A lotto seller, Mr Thomas Hodogbe, who operates close to the Tema Station, told the Daily Graphic that the poor sanitary condition was becoming a matter of great concern that required immediate action to correct the situation.
“It is gratifying that we are in the rainy season as the downpours have washed a good deal of the rubbish that had collected in the gutters away.
“Even though the gutters are still dirty, the situation is better than before the rains,” he said.
Mr Hodogbe described the mobile lavatories as white elephants since urine that was passed in them were channelled to flow into the gutters .
“But the biggest concern is with the activities of the head porters. Just when it is about dark, the porters squat close to the gutters and openly defecate into them,” he said with anger written all over his face.
Mr Hodogbe said he was forced under the prevailing conditions to buy disinfectant to cleanse his work area each morning before he started work due to the insantary conditions, including faeces dropped all over the place.
Efforts not helping
While admitting that occasionally the Accra Metropolitan Assembly cleaned the gutters and the surroundings in general, he said the measure was not far-reaching enough because the root cause of the problem was not solved.
He mentioned two famous ‘chop bars’ whose activities were negatively affecting cleanliness in the area. He said waste from the eating places were directed into gutters outside the station and this was creating a lot of inconveniences to patrons of the station and residents of the area.
“It is God who looks after us. The operations of chop bar operators are troubling and when you complain, they charge at you with insults.
“All they are interested in is to make money and not the welfare of others. I believe they are in the good books of the assembly, that is why their activities are not being questioned,” Mr Hodogbe observed.
The authorities
Mr William Ocquaye, the Chairman of the New Tema Station managers of the transport yard, said sanitation at the station had improved over the years.
He said the present sorry state of affairs was not as a result of mismanagement at the station but rather because of the bad attitude of some traders and commuters who visit the station.
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“The sanitation situation presently is not that bad. We are doing our best to ensure cleanliness here but the activities of some persons are becoming an impediment to our progress. But we are working around the clock to rectify the problems,” he said.
Mr Ocquaye went on to bemoan the activities of head porters at the station, adding that some of them were alleged to be involved in prostitution and other deviant behaviours at the station during the late hours of the night.