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| A waste dump site left unattended to for many months |
Waste and sanitation management everywhere in the
world including Ghana is capital intensive. Not even in developed countries
where its management is driven by hi-tech, aside having proper disposal sites
and being able to maintain them.
This
notwithstanding, when there is the will and sincere show of commitment by all citizens
including faith groups and civil society organizations (CSOs), waste management
in densely populated areas could culminate into wealth creation through the
generation of natural gas for domestic use and organic manure for the
fertilization of farmlands that would benefit a whole lot of people, and
perhaps generations to come.
Indeed, this
could best be described as one of the best or surest means of fighting climate
change and desertification which result from overdependence on fuel wood,
indiscriminate felling of trees, bad farming practices, charcoal production, among
others.
Unfortunately in
Ghana, one of the most promising nations in Sub-Sahara Africa, weak waste and
sanitation management laws are not helping the situation. This, coupled with
the laid-back attitude of faith-based groups and CSOs in providing support, is further
bloating annual government expenditure under the nose of political leadership
who also seem not to be taking the right decisions to deal with the gargantuan sanitation
and waste problems. This has made it difficult if not impossible, for the
nation’s leadership to meet certain critical development needs the ordinary
citizens are yearning for.
It cost the
government of Ghana US$290 million or GH¢420 million representing 1.6 percent
of Gross Domestic Product each year due to poor sanitation, according to a study
by the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP).
The desk study, Economic Impacts of Poor
Sanitation in Africa - Ghana, found that the majority (74 percent) of these
costs come from the annual premature deaths of 19,000 Ghanaians from diarrheal
diseases, including 5,100 children under the age of 5, nearly 90 percent of
which is directly attributable to poor water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Health-related costs account for nearly 19 percent of the total economic costs,
while access time and productivity losses account for about 7 percent. The
study also found 4.8 million Ghanaians have no latrine at all and defecate in
the open, and that the poorest quintile is 22 times more likely to practice
open defecation than the richest.
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| A bird's eye view of Tamale township |
Tamale, the
fastest growing city in West Africa in recent years, is gradually emerging as a
slum despite being adjudged the cleanest city in Ghana on three occasions. This
is because, waste and sanitation management has taken a partisan dimension and
further made worse by supporters of both the NPP and NDC who have decided to
align themselves with either divides of the Dagbon chieftaincy dispute, thereby
making many people feign interest in taking part in communal cleanup exercises
over the years out of mere resentments.
For instance,
during the Administration of NPP’s Mohammed Amin Adam Anta as Mayor of Tamale, most
NDC members deliberately refused to take part in general cleanup exercises. The
reverse is happening now under the current Administration of Alhaji Abudulai
Haruna Friday of the ruling NDC who finds it difficult to rally support from
most residents of the city. Thus, the Assembly continue to spend not less than GH¢900,000.00
annually on sanitation and waste management alone, according to an official in
the waste management department who wants to remain anonymous.
Also, there are
inadequate drainage systems or gutters in over 50 percent of the entire
Metropolis which is the cause of life threatening floods in recent years. This
has also led to serious erosions thereby making most of the areas dirty and
considered as emerging slums.
Cleanliness, the
two Holy Books (Bible and Qur’an) say, is next to godliness. But surprisingly,
in a largely religious community like Tamale where Christians and Muslims are
taught to observe cleanliness in their daily lives and also consider it a
spiritual obligation, it is so appalling to see choked reeking gutters and
incinerators in almost every corner of nearly all vicinities in the city.
Few examples of
vicinities considered by this writer as the dirtiest places in the Metropolis
include Tishegu/Ward K, Kalpohini/Sangani, Kukuo, Duanayili, Changli, Gumani,
Jisonaayili, Kanvilli, Vitting, Dabokpa, Koblimahagu, Sakasaka, Nyohini,
Lamashegu, Gumbihini, Gurugu, Tamale Polytechnic, Choggu, Bulpiela, Zogbeli, Nyanshegu,
among others.
In fact, most of
these settlements are turning into slums by the day due to poor planning of
buildings and erosion as well as poor waste and sanitation management. When
walking through houses in these vicinities, one needs to be very careful or
risk stepping into human excreta disposed off carelessly by residents. Majority
of residents in Tamale wantonly and inanely dispose-off garbage and defecate
anyhow and anywhere they find; be it in the gutters/drainage systems, trenches,
nearby bushes or shrubs during the day or night time.
Communal
bathrooms in almost all the homes in Tamale do not have properly built
incinerators for water intake and for that matter; waste water is discharged
carelessly into walkways running through various homes. Besides, almost all
rooms in every home have a bathroom where tenants who prefer to bath inside
their rooms instead of the communal bathroom, also discharge the sewage anyhow
without recourse to cleanliness. For these residents, not even the frequent
treatment of malaria and other insect or water borne diseases, can tell them
that it is as a result of their bad attitude towards sanitation that is why
they fall sick so often and for that matter must adopt good sanitary
practices.
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| picture of a typical slum |
Indeed, the
filthy situation in the Tamale Metropolis can be attributed to the lack of
spirit of volunteerism or communalism among majority of residents. As a result,
this is gradually eroding the successes chalked in recent years by authorities
of the Assembly. In AD 2005, the Tamale Metropolis was adjudged the cleanest
city in Ghana. Three years after that honor (AD 2008) was bestowed on it by the
Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the Ghana Tourist Board
(GTB) also rated the city again as the cleanest in Ghana. The Metropolis capped
this accolade for the third time in AD 2010, with another award from
Zoomlion Ghana Limited as the cleanest city.
Assembly Members
and their Unit Committees, who are supposed to promote development initiatives
in their localities on behalf of the Assembly, simply cannot mobilize their
people to de-silt choked gutters or incinerators and cleanup filth due to petty
resentments among the people. Anytime they make the move, the youth will accuse
them of collecting money from the Assembly as contract awarded on the cleaning
of the gutters and therefore, will not toil for nothing.
This is where one
would think that religious organizations (churches/mosques), must step in
immediately to regularly and consistently organize their members to embark on
cleanup exercises to tidy up the dirty environs of Tamale as a demonstration of
what they preach on their pulpits on Fridays and Sundays or any other day. This
is because, when state institutions such as the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly
begin to show symptoms of failure by not enforcing the laws or finding it
difficult to do so, it is highly anticipated that the clergy who serve as a
bridge between society and God, would ask for ‘spiritual cleansing’ on behalf
of their people (leading their members in a crusade against the volumes of
waste engulfing the city through cleanup exercises).
Moreover, if members
of the about one thousand churches and mosques in the Tamale Metropolis
including thousands of traders, dressmakers, beauticians, sachet water
producers, among others engage in a monthly cleanup exercise, the Assembly
might just end up spending half of what it spends annually on waste and
sanitation and the rest channeled into other development projects if only
authorities do not lineup their pockets with it.
So, if you are a
true believer of the Holy Bible or Qur’an both of which preach cleanliness,
then stop defecating in gutters, littering the environment and get involve in
communal labour in your vicinity. Also, if you belong to any group of traders
or business association and has the Tamale Metropolis at heart, this is the
time for you to join hands together as true patriots and get rid of all disease
causing agents in every nook and cranny.
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