Campaign for Clean Environment Falling On Deaf Ears

Despite the campaign by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to educate traders and food vendors to sell their wares in a clean environment; most of these people still sell their wares in filthy areas.

One example is the big gutter running from old Lido to Orion Cinema at the Nkrumah Circle is full of rubbish with an army of flies. The smell from the gutter is unbearable; and yet food vendors and traders are selling their wares right by the gutter.

Traders, hawkers and food vendors as well as their customers create the refuse in the first place when they throw empty rubber bags and water sachets into the gutters. Garbage, dirty water, urine and even night soil all get dumped in the gutters.

This is the practice at Lagos Town, Maamobi, Agbogbloshie, Kasoa to mention a few places. "Left-over" food such as rice and the skins of plantain, yam or cocoyam also end up in the gutters, instead of in a receptacle.

A Ghanaian friend who normally buys food from the food vendors at the Nkrumah Circle has stopped buying from that area because of the rubbish and the flies that come to settle on the prepared food.

In European countries, where they have efficient sewerage systems, all the gutters are covered, yet the citizens are still educated against throwing rubbish or refuse about.

In Ghana where our gutters are exposed and all refuse finds its way into the gutters, the education campaign must be intensified.

BOROUGH CONCEPT

Accra with a population of about three million has for many years been faced with the problem of managing waste. The process of waste management begins with the storing of the waste at the household level (not in gutters).

In the U.K. and other European countries structures made with cement are mounted in front of houses where refuse is kept. The waste management department of the borough or council then collects and transports the refuse for final disposal every morning.

Accra is growing and AMA alone cannot manage the refuse or waste in the city. Accra generates 1,500 to 1,800 tonnes of waste daily, but AMA says it is able to collect only about 1,200 tonnes daily. The rest remains in gutters and open spaces. Accra should be partitioned into about eight or ten councils or boroughs and each should take care of its area.

District Assemblies in the Accra Metropolis are non-existent so far as waste management is concerned. They are not mentioned anywhere. It is therefore the council or "borough" arrangement that could resolve waste disposal and enforce local sanitation in the Accra metropolis.

In the U.K. the Greater London Council (GLC), which is like the Accra Metropolitan Assembly consists of London county halls, which are called boroughs. The urban centres here need further partitioning for more efficient management. The boroughs can enforce bye-laws better because they have a smaller area to manage.

LORRY PARKS.

A visit to Makola Market and Tudu Lorry Park in Accra will give a real insight of indiscipline in Accra. Traders, food vendors, hawkers, drivers and their passengers have taken over the whole area including pavements and it is impossible to walk either on them or the road.

Children selling iced water in sachets and other wares have occupied the road in front of U.T.C., the Fire Service station, Kimberly Avenue etc. and motorists find it difficult to use this road. It is chaotic.

Years ago, all these areas were clean and orderly. No one was allowed to sell on the pavements much more on the roads. Sanitary inspectors showed up all the time to stop traders from creating insanitary conditions. They also saw to it that open gutters were free from waste by cleaning them with brushes and water and that refuse collection was done every day.

The population growth seems to have overwhelmed the city of Accra and some other urban centres. The only solution will be to partition Accra.

The boroughs would ensure that services are provided to residents. They will also provide proper street numbering to identify areas.

AMA's campaign to educate traders and food vendors to sell their wares in a clean environment would not be effective because the assignment is too much for AMA alone to handle.