Ghana Engulfs in Filth As Sanitation Cash Locks Up

tourismGhana’s burgeoning population is producing far more waste than its creaking infrastructure can contain.

For instance, Abu Alhassan is one of thousands of unofficial waste-pickers who see this as an opportunity to make some cash.

Half-immersed in a large bin outside a smart housing compound in the capital, Accra, he pulls out variety of cans, including water bottles and empty jam jars, and stuffs them into his tricycle.

He then sells his daily haul for 20 Ghana cedis (about $5). “I take the rubbish, give it to a middleman and he sells it for much more,” he said while flipping through a discarded women’s magazine.

On the larger scale, the overburdened Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have outsourced waste management in their various communities to members of the Environmental Service Providers (ESPA) and the Plastic Waste Collectors Association of Ghana (PWCAG) but the problem of funding is affecting their operations.

This is taking place at the time when a whopping amount of GH¢44.3 million realized from the environmental tax between 2011 and 2014 are being locked up at the Ministry of Finance.

The money is yet to be disbursed to the various service providers to enable them to manage waste in an effective and efficient manner because the regulations to govern its operations are not ready, according to Dr Edward Larbi Siaw, Tax policy Adviser at the Ministry of Finance.

Dr Siaw told a BUSAC Fund sponsored programme on GTV that when the legal documentation is finalized for disbursement of the fund, it would follow the structure of the Export Trade, Agricultural and Industrial Development Fund.

He indicated that some of the beneficiaries of the fund would include Environmental Services Providers Association, Zoomlion, Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Kumasi Waste Management, Plastic Waste Collectors Association of Ghana (PWCAG), among others.

The Project Coordinator, Plastic Water Collectors Association of Ghana,  Quaranchie Adama-Tettey said he did not understand why the setting up of the modalities for the disbursement of the could take such long time.

He appealed to the stakeholders to show more commitment towards the establishment of the fund to help address the waste management challenges in the country.

The Executive Secretary of ESPA, Mrs. Ama Ofori-Antwi added: “The unduly delay in the payment of our services by the various MMDAs is a major challenge to ESPA members”.

But the then Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Nii Lanptey Vanderpuije, now the Minister of Youth and Sports stated that the provision of free sanitary services was a thing of the past.

Cities disgorge more tonnes of waste

Ghana’s sprawling cities namely Accra, Tema, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi and Tamale disgorge more than 7,000 metric tonnes of waste a day.

Accra, the nation’s capital alone with a population of 5 million generates about 2,200) tonnes of solid waste every day, and out of this only 1800 tonnes are collected daily, leaving a deficit of 400 tonnes uncollected.

According to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) solid waste generated in Accra alone comprises 65 percent organic, 3 percent paper, 3.5 percent plastic, 3.6 percent glass, 2.5 percent metal, 1.7 percent textile, 17.1 percent of inert metals and 1.2 percent being residue of other waste materials.

All these waste are expected to be cleared by the overburdened MMDAs but they end up collecting a fraction which createshealth hazards for the inhabitants, and tourists.

Breeding grounds for mosquitoes

Sadly, according to Ghana Health Service (GHS), cases of malaria are estimated at over 8 million annually, and more than 1,000 of these result in death.

Yet, the breeding grounds for anopheles mosquito, the insect that transmits the deadly disease, is voluntarily prepared by many of its victims day after day.

When empty plastic bags and bottles are carelessly disposed in the streets, they are washed into the gutters where they clog the drainage and cause the water to remain stagnant, forming the perfect breeding place for the anopheles mosquito to complete its life-cycle and attack its unsuspecting “breeders”.

Figures from the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (EHSD) of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) have revealed that poor sanitation costs Ghana $290 million each year representing 1.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Meanwhile if simple precautions ─ like making sure water is never retained in the gutters ─ were taken, maybe the funds would have been channeled into other areas in the health sector which would translate into real sustainable development for the country.

Apart from mosquitoes and stench, the resultant humus soil formed by the combo of stagnant water, refuse and sand in the drainages provides a viable environment for grass to grow.

In the end, these help to carve nice niches not only for insects, but also bigger vermin like cockroaches, rats and mice right in the middle of the cities especially Accra, and Kumasi. These cities thus put at the risk of killer diseases ranging from cholera, lassa fever to diarrhoea.

Haunted by dirt

The numerous campaigns about cleanliness, in Accra and many other cities in Ghana seem to have little or no effect.

The gutters are filled with aggregates of sand, plastic bottles, polythene materials and lush green grass such that the road becomes the only possible path for rain water.

Carelessness and poverty

Ironically, many inhabitants of the major cities, in particular, agree that they are also guilty in some ways for the problem of litter constituting an eyesore and a hazard on the streets.

ESPA which is responsible for effective waste management has received many commendations for doing their utmost in curbing the menace presented by poor waste management.

However, one problem militating against ESPA’s work is the fact that some people are either unable or unwilling to pay the fees associated with the services. Hence these ones dispose their wastes at inappropriate places.

“The waste disposal truck demands a payment of over GH¢100 (over $30) per quarter for our compound,” Maame Abena, a resident of East Legon, a suburb of Accra said. “We divide the bill amongst the residents of the compound, but some people find it hard to pay.”

While Abena and his fellow compound residents are always able to cover for some of their neighbours’ inadequacy in paying the bills, elsewhere such neighbours are left to find a way to dispose their refuse, by themselves.

“It is people who don’t want to pay the waste disposal charges that throw dirt in the gutters and water ways,” Yaw Opoku, a mobile phones owner told African Eye Report at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle area.

True, like Opoku asserts, there are people “who do not want to pay” the charges. Nevertheless some whose income fall far below the poverty line really have the desire to support the government’s arrangement, but how can they do it when they hardly can afford to feed and clothe themselves? Poverty too is a factor, he argued.

Cholera rising

Cholera continues to be one of the fastest killer diseases which are highly preventable. It is not only a killer, it is also a drain on public purse and disgraceful to a country’s image.

In 2014, the cholera pandemic that hit the nation in June and some 9000 cases have been reported with over 85 deaths in some 46 districts in the country.

The story has not been different over the years. In the first quarter of 2012 alone, Accra has recorded 826 cases of cholera with 17 confirmed deaths. Even though, this is an improvement over 2011’s figures of 3,000 cases and 24 deaths within the same period, the situation still leaves much to be desired.

Cholera remains a global threat and is one of the key indicators of social development. While the disease no longer poses a threat to countries with minimum standards of hygiene, it remains a challenge to countries where access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation cannot be guaranteed.

Open defecation 

Ghana recently ranked second after Sudan in Africa for open defecation, with five million Ghanaians not having access to any toilet facility.

This implies that the West African second largest economy is performing poorly with sanitation coverage of only 15 percent, making the practice of open defecation a key sanitation challenge because people do not have access to key basic facilities.

David Duncan, Chief Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Officer at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), disclosed this to journalists in Accra on World Toilet Day.

The Open Defecation alone costs Ghana $79 million per year, $215 million is lost each year due to premature death from poor water, sanitation and hygiene, according to the data from the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (EHSD) of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD).

Dirty beaches

Despite Ghana`s ranking as third in hotel development in sub-Saharan Africa in 2013, with more than 1, 400 hotel rooms under development, the country`s beaches face serious sanitation problems and environmental degradation.

The state of sanitation of many of the country`s beaches is so appalling that they are not attractive to tourists. The lukewarm attitude towards sanitation at the beaches was captured vividly by the Ghanaian media reports.

A cursory look at the country’s beaches portrays reprehensible squalor. Many people use the beaches as defecation grounds and for dumping garbage. This causes poor sanitation on the beaches, leading to massive environmental pollution. This affects the overall effectiveness of harnessing the coast for ecotourism.

Tidal waves also bring mountainous heaps of plastic waste and debris in the form of decomposing carcass, discarded fabrics, logs and unwanted electronic parts. Thus the beaches are replete with repugnant scents that make it impossible for visitors to enjoy quietude and fresh breeze.

These appalling spectacles cast a slur on the nation`s lower middle income status and impede efforts aimed at promoting public health, ensuring environmental sustainability and eventually catapulting the country to an upper middle income status.

Nevertheless, the government, through the coastal districts in partnership with Zoomlion Ghana Limited, is trying to make some beaches clean.

Measures to address the menace 

Despite all the confluence of efforts, Ghana simply has not found “above-average solution” to waste management, whether it is solid, liquid, hazardous or even radioactive materials.

And in recognition that poor sanitation is generally an attitudinal problem, measures have been taken by the authorities from time-to-time to draw public attention to the malady, but to no avail.

The many years of numerous byelaws instituted by the MMDAs and the monthly clean-up campaigns being rotated among the ten regions of Ghana have been the latest weapon to be employed against the menace. But it has not yielded any positive results so far.

To this end, the Environmental Service Providers Association and the Plastic Waste Collectors Association of Ghana and other stakeholders have both advocated a number of measures including the polluter pays principle to stem the poor environmental management situation in which Ghanaians find themselves.

These stakeholders therefore did not hesitate to call for the establishment of the waste management fund from the existing environmental tax fund whose monies have been locked up for more than five years.

They agreed that when the fund is set up, it will help them address the funding, logistical, and public education campaigns challenges confronting them.

By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report

 

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