Filth engulfs Kumasi Ministries. Who cares?

“Welcome to one of the filthiest vicinities in the Ashanti Region.” This was the description given by a 75-year-old ex-soldier, Mr Richard Dwomoh, who saw this reporter taking pictures of food vendors selling in the grime right behind the Ministries in Kumasi.

When I later introduced myself to him as a reporter of the Daily Graphic, he added, “I hope the whole world will see how dirty and irresponsible both the educated and uneducated people in this area are. I hope they will never blame the government if there is any outbreak of disease.”

Right in the midst of this grimy area, exuding a malodorous stench which could cause the faint-hearted first-time visitor to either pass out or spew saliva at the first encounter, other human beings are seen gracefully enjoying their meals and doing business.

Where

This is an area in the Garden City of West Africa, Kumasi, popularly and officially referred to as the Ministries of the Ashanti Region, although no government minister operates an office from there.

It is called the Ministries because it houses the buildings where government business is done.

Surprisingly, the trio two-storey buildings and their surroundings could pass for the grimiest white-collar vicinity occupied by civil and public servants carrying out government transaction in the entire Ashanti Region.

Offices

Offices housed in this filthy environment include the Attorney-General’s Department, the Labour Department, AESL, the Lands Commission, the National Board for Small-Scale Industries and the Ghana Standards Authority.

Others are the Lands Commission, the Information Services Department, the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, Prudential Bank and the Inspectorate Division.

The structure housing the A-G’s offices seems clean, and recently painted but it is not spared the filth outside.

Sanitation Days

Behind this filthy vicinity is the brisk business of over 20 food vendors preparing and serving food while hundreds also patronise these,  oblivious of the sickness they are consuming.

It could pass for a mini market because of the number of traders besides those selling food.  Items sold in these make-shift shops at the filthy area include stationery, clothes, shoes and there are over 20 Commissioners of Oath.

Flies of all kinds abound         

President John Dramani Mahama; the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, political as well as traditional leaders, including the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu ll, have at different and several occasions joined residents of cities, towns and villages to undertake clean-up exercises to rid the country of filth.

Unfortunately, not a single broom or brush has been used to clean any portion of this vast land behind the structures where these people sell in filth, since the National Sanitation Day was declared over nine to months ago.

Dirt

Age-old dirt mixed with human faeces and urine could be spotted less than a metre away from the windows of these government offices.

From within the offices, one could see ladies lowering their skirts while men open the  flap-of their trousers to urinate, while some children eased themselves with careless abandon; all close to these offices.

Right behind the windows of these offices, most of which are covered with weeds, people are seen freely urinating as if the buildings were designated urinals or abandoned structures.

One had to tiptoe when walking behind the windows because the least miscalculated step would land a foot on a heap of human faeces or in a pool of mixted of human urine and dirt.

Because there are no drains to carry the dirty water away after their cooking, the food vendors pour the dirty water on the urine just behind the offices.

Food vending

Food prepared in these unhygienic conditions are consumed by people around, including staff of these government ministries who should have known better but  care less about the huge number of flies that parade and distribute all kinds of diseases.

Heaps of rubbish created by the food vendors, other people who sell all kinds of items ranging from clothes to bags and those who swear oaths have been allowed up to heap to unimaginable heights. Some those are times burnt and the billows of smoke find their way into the already stinking offices.

In an interview with one Auntie Afua, who sells Ga Kenkey  and stew, she acknowledged the dirty environment but was of the view that since she pays her taxes to KMA, the assembly should clean the place.

Taxes

Surprisingly, officers from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) visit those who sell food, clothes, and other items and collect tolls from them on daily basis but see nothing wrong with the unhygienic conditions.

When this reporter confronted a KMA toll collector who was busily collecting tolls, as to whether she had seen the filth in which she collects taxes from the food vendors, he retorted, “that is their problem. Mine is to collect the toll.”

Workers

A worker who spoke on condition of anonymity  blamed the workers in institutions in the area and accused them (as workers) of not behaving responsibly.