Backyard of popular office complex in Navrongo turned into place of convenience

Correspondence from Upper East:

The backyard of the Treasury Block popularly known as ‘Education Office’ in Navrongo has been turned into a place of convenience by some members of the public.

The portion of the over 35 years old block, which is hidden from the eyes of the public by metal containers and other structures, has become a place where people particularly drivers and the market folk engage in indiscriminate passing of human excreta.

Aside that, the place has been turned into a dump site where used plastic bags and other forms of waste materials are discarded. The place is also now a ‘bathhouse’ as people go there with buckets of water to take their baths.

Operators of food joints at the lorry station which is close by have also turned the backyard of the building into a sewage where they dump large quantities of liquid waste.

These indiscriminate activities are posing health risks to the general public particularly occupants of the building which houses several government and private offices in the ground floor.

GhanaWeb’s Senyalah Castro pitched camp close to the building on Tuesday morning to monitor the situation and counted up to 25 people within an hour who moved to the place to either urinate, pass stools or pour away waste materials.

Amoah Justin Kofi, the Municipal Survey Officer, behind whose office window these activities take place said he and his staff are unable to work in their office during the day due to the stench that comes from the backyard.
He said the stench could sometimes be so bad that everyone would vacate their offices to prevent putting their health at risk.

Mr. Amoah said even though occupants of the block in their capacity have taken steps, including cleaning the yard and enacting directives to drive away offenders, that was not helping as people keep on engaging in the indiscriminate acts.

He mentioned that the only way people can be warded off was for the Municipal Assembly to intervene with stricter punishment. He also suggested the provision of urinals within the lorry station.

Awopone Cletus, another occupant, who lamented the negative impact the stench from the yard was having on his operations, said most of the people who defecate there come during the weekends when all offices are closed.

He said they have informed authority of what was happening there but nothing has been done to address the situation.

Agampim Desmond, who works with the Assemblies of God Credit Union which operating from one the offices, said the health of occupants of the building have been put at risk by the foul smell that emanates from the human excreta and other waste materials dumped at the backyard.

He said he has personally on several occasions confronted offenders to stop polluting the place but that did not bring any change. He is therefore appealing to the Municipal Assembly to fence the place to keep away offenders.