I am among other things a proud Ghanaian living in a rapidly growing metropolis of the gateway to Africa. A peaceful and an interesting place to grow up in with an open access to the rest of the world via gossip and the internet. I had the pleasure of studying Integrated Community Development at the University and wrote my thesis on The Effects of Solid Waste Management in Jawia, a community in the Upper West region of Ghana. Back then it was just an academic exercise to fulfill the requirement of my course and not so much passion driven. All the same during the research part of the work I was exposed to a lot of interesting data and phenomena both on paper and on the ground that gave me an interesting new awareness about the environment within which I find myself.
Some months back I came across a meme on social media saying something like "the best 'waakye' is usually sold at the edge of a very dirty gutter" and after the hilarious bit it got me thinking. I mean it's alright to laugh at our numerous pathetic situations every once in a while especially with the penetration of the internet and Social media in recent times. But, it occurred to me that, we do not fully comprehend the extent to which our sanitation shortfalls have lost their comic value. So I decided to "think far" on this issue to remind myself how we got into this mess to begin with.
"Cleanliness is next to godliness. Being clean is a sign of spiritual purity or goodness, as in Don't forget to wash your ears - cleanliness is next to godliness." This phrase from a 1778 sermon by John Wesley, though an ancient idea from Babylonian and Hebrew religious origins, still resonates among many believers and non believers alike to this day. It provides inspiration in various forms to suit all manner of our daily human endeavours.
A recent read of an article from Deutsche Welle's (DW) website revealed that as at 2014 Ghana had in excess of 10,000 churches or religious entities claiming allegiance to Christianity. This same country has in excess of 4.3 million Muslims, a beacon of cultural and religious diversity and tolerance is what my homeland is, an overwhelming majority of my country's population believe in or belong to a religion that believes in the existence of a "GOD".
Now if cleanliness is indeed next to godliness and over 90% of my country men and women believe in God, then one would be excused for assuming that Ghana is or at least aspires to be the cleanest country on the African continent or even in the world. But the unfortunate truth is that we are not even in the race and at our current rate it will really take a lot of drastic action from a nationalistic stand point to reverse this potentially calamitous situation.
According to the “Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment,” a collaborative monitoring report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Ghana is the 7th dirtiest country in the world. This Black Star doesn't even appear on the 2017 top 20 or 25 list of clean countries or cities ranked on various platforms across the internet. This leaves me wondering then if indeed Wesley's statement is anything to go by, or if it's just some fancy words that sound nice together for our self interest when we need to sound smart in speech. But to be fair to the believers (myself inclusive), we do wear clean clothes to our places of worship and usually keep our places of worship " clean and holy". We sometimes also keep our homes clean to convenience ourselves and impress visitors. We on the other hand litter the streets, gutters, market places, central business districts, etc and don't bother to clean because that is the responsibility of the "Government" (a political party in power with access to infinite resources to solve all our problems; the ordinary people are of cause not part of this grouping because we were not on the ballot paper during elections, or at least so we think).
Now if cleanliness is indeed next to godliness and over 90% of my country men and women believe in God, then one would be excused for assuming that Ghana is or at least aspires to be the cleanest country on the African continent or even in the world. But the unfortunate truth is that we are not even in the race and at our current rate it will really take a lot of drastic action from a nationalistic stand point to reverse this potentially calamitous situation.
According to the “Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment,” a collaborative monitoring report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Ghana is the 7th dirtiest country in the world. This Black Star doesn't even appear on the 2017 top 20 or 25 list of clean countries or cities ranked on various platforms across the internet. This leaves me wondering then if indeed Wesley's statement is anything to go by, or if it's just some fancy words that sound nice together for our self interest when we need to sound smart in speech. But to be fair to the believers (myself inclusive), we do wear clean clothes to our places of worship and usually keep our places of worship " clean and holy". We sometimes also keep our homes clean to convenience ourselves and impress visitors. We on the other hand litter the streets, gutters, market places, central business districts, etc and don't bother to clean because that is the responsibility of the "Government" (a political party in power with access to infinite resources to solve all our problems; the ordinary people are of cause not part of this grouping because we were not on the ballot paper during elections, or at least so we think).
Now don't get me wrong, this is not an affront on people with beliefs. After all, as the British RnB singer Angel beautifully puts it "legends are made of believers" and I personally think a man who believes in nothing usually fears nothing and that man is a dangerous man.
We have failed as individuals, communities and as a country, to manage the waste and sanitation situations in our cities and villages, and this is evident in the ugly black plastic laden gutters that welcome you to the major cities of the country. A recent ranking of MMDAs in the Northern region in the " Open Defecation League Table" saw Tamale coming in last for the third consecutive year. This is part of efforts by NGOs and Government to promote a Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) across the country. This revelation did not sit well with a Government official who was on national television challenging the criteria for the ranking though it is a Government supported activity. He insists a lot is being done to promote sanitation in the municipality and that it's simply because of the high population that makes Tamale a regular target for the poor ranking.
I personally find it problematic first of all that public office holders seem to have a penchant for making excuses when they should be accepting faults and professing solutions. Secondly, a more populous MMDA indeed means more waste but most importantly also means more revenue, so if indeed sanitation is a priority I am quite certain a lot more could have been done to uplift the state of sanitation in the municipality.
It is no wonder floods are becoming more and more rampant in the country, a recent situation that led to a woman being swept away in her car after a short and heavy rainfall in Tamale.
Even as I put together this piece it has been raining for close to an hour and this is what a portion of the Tamale central business district looks like.
The situation could very easily be blamed on a backward urban planning model that is rather reactive; correcting errors that had no business being there to begin with and applying stop gap measures to problems in need of permanent solutions. We could also very easily fall into the debate of the role and relevance of the Assemblies under the Local Government structure, which are mandated to manage waste and sanitation at the district level, in the appalling situation we find ourselves today.
The key revelation in all of these I find is our indifference to the situation, our inability to recognize that our actions or inactions as individual citizens is what is generating this problem for the collective. In as much as legislations can check situations like this, I am rather very skeptical, since we live in a country of laws with little or no will and or ability to enforce. In Abraham Lincoln words, "laws without enforcement are just good advise".
I will go into the interventions of the past and present that are seeking to mitigate the disastrous effects of the sanitation menace in the second part of this writeup. In the meantime, if the floods and mudslides that invaded Sierra Leone ever sought to pay a visit to this land of gold and "galamsey", the devastating disease outbreaks that will follow, I am almost certain, will rival afflictions of biblical prophecy.
But then again I have neither the titles nor the accolades to claim to know it all and pronounce judgement on this great nation, but as a citizen of the land, I will not be denied my birth right of speaking out my piece of common sense.
Do comment below as you see fit :)
Even as I put together this piece it has been raining for close to an hour and this is what a portion of the Tamale central business district looks like.
The situation could very easily be blamed on a backward urban planning model that is rather reactive; correcting errors that had no business being there to begin with and applying stop gap measures to problems in need of permanent solutions. We could also very easily fall into the debate of the role and relevance of the Assemblies under the Local Government structure, which are mandated to manage waste and sanitation at the district level, in the appalling situation we find ourselves today.
The key revelation in all of these I find is our indifference to the situation, our inability to recognize that our actions or inactions as individual citizens is what is generating this problem for the collective. In as much as legislations can check situations like this, I am rather very skeptical, since we live in a country of laws with little or no will and or ability to enforce. In Abraham Lincoln words, "laws without enforcement are just good advise".
I will go into the interventions of the past and present that are seeking to mitigate the disastrous effects of the sanitation menace in the second part of this writeup. In the meantime, if the floods and mudslides that invaded Sierra Leone ever sought to pay a visit to this land of gold and "galamsey", the devastating disease outbreaks that will follow, I am almost certain, will rival afflictions of biblical prophecy.
But then again I have neither the titles nor the accolades to claim to know it all and pronounce judgement on this great nation, but as a citizen of the land, I will not be denied my birth right of speaking out my piece of common sense.
Do comment below as you see fit :)
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