A beautiful country which was then Gold Coast but now Ghana, has gone through series of challenges and managed to keep its head above water. But the attitude of Ghanaians, perhaps, keeps slowing the pace of development.
According to an article written by George Owusu from the Journal on Urbanism, a key challenge facing many countries in a rapidly developing urbanized world is sanitation and waste management. Poor sanitation has and will always be one of the major impediments to development and Ghana is no exception with specific reference to the situation in the Capital, Accra.
There seems to be little or no solution to this number one enemy of the country, which has led to several effects. Good and devoted citizens have lost their lives and properties to poor sanitation during rains. Gutters get choked every time it rains which leads to flooding. Much as common knowledge accepts there are poor drainage systems, the attitude of Ghanaians of dumping waste indiscriminately gets these gutters choked. These gutters have been created to allow free and easy flow of water, especially when it rains, so flooding does not occur, but the culprits are people who dump rubbish illicitly even when bins have been made available at vantage points, even in the face of the obvious implications.
This condition we face as a country poses a great threat to our economy, our tourism and, above all, our health. Ghanaians lose their lives to diseases like cholera and malaria as a result of poor sanitation and waste management every year.
As one of the measures to improve sanitation, much awareness has to be created on the need to keep the country clean. However, it also boils down to our own attitudes towards sanitation and until there is a behaviour change, Ghana will continuously be at the mercy of poor sanitation.
As the saying goes “cleanliness is next to godliness” and also, “prevention is better than cure.” We can, and we must make mother Ghana the beautiful paradise we want her to be.
