Our national capital must not be dirty

On her first day in office as the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Linda Ocloo rallied stakeholders in the region to help with the implementation of a robust sanitation plan to promote a healthy environment.

The call, made at an engagement with technocrats, directors, heads of institutions and managers of programmes at all the 29 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the region, also hinted of an intent to revive the sanitation day exercise in the region as part of a broader national sanitation plan.

The focus on sanitation as a prime concern in the region is most instructive, given the mounting issues of filth and other environmental conditions.

Environmental sanitation may perhaps provide a sound measurement of the health of life in a particular system. From the handling and management of both solid and liquid waste to air pollution, the impact of sanitation on life cannot be overstated.

In Ghana, particularly around the more densely populated urban areas, waste management has proven a daunting assignment for duty-bearers. Indeed, the piles of filth and  rubbish scattered along the streets and pavements make an unpleasant sight.

A United Nations (UN) national report on Ghana following the 18th Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development indicated that “degradable organic materials make up the bulk of Ghana’s discarded municipal solid waste”.

It said a study on the composition of municipal solid waste conducted by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly showed that about 65 per cent of the waste stream consisted of organics, while “inert material arising from the practice of hand sweeping sand constituted about 17.1 per cent of the waste stream”.

Together, the report stated, both organics and inert material accounted for about 82 per cent of the waste. 

The trend, the report stated, was no different from most urban centres of the country.

Essentially, the various waste components, including plastic and electronic waste, have combined to compromise the health of the local environment.

This is why the objective of Ms Ocloo towards sanitation in the region is most reassuring. 

To achieve the target, the Regional Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Shai Osudoku, further stated that the capacity of waste management units at the various MMDAs in the region would be strengthened to perform their roles effectively as part of the comprehensive sanitation policy.

Such is the resolve to tackle matters of sanitation that she indicated she would make issues of sanitation part of the key performance indicators for all the 29 metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives in the region.

Mere rhetoric around sanitation cannot be tolerated in this era of suffocating filth in the capital and elsewhere in the country. We may not have succeeded in making Accra the cleanest city in Africa or even in West Africa as promised by the former government, but the desire to rid the system of insanitary conditions cannot die with our collective indifference to the situation.

The UN report referenced above stated that “the problem of waste in Ghana is a direct result of a growing urban population, the changing patterns of production and consumption, the inherently more urbanised life-style and industrialisation”.

It summarised the issues as poor planning for waste management programmes; inadequate equipment and operational funds to support waste management activities; inadequate sites and facilities for waste management operations; inadequate skills and capacity of waste management staff, and negative attitudes of the public towards the environment in general.

In the Regional Minister’s subsequent engagement with Jospong Group of Companies, she stated the desire to actualise the vision of making the Greater Accra Region the showpiece centre of cleanliness.

Jospong Group has established a number of waste processing plants across the country for recycling. Beyond the benefit of generating employment for the population, such facilities could become a major part of the country’s energy generation mix. This must be supported.

This ambition must be sustained with every force to make Accra and other parts of the country a semblance of order in terms of sanitation.

At the least, it is not in doubt that tackling sanitation can lead to job creation and the attendant improvement in living standards of the people.

And this effort must succeed!