The perennial floods engulfing our beloved Ghana, predominantly our populated cities of Accra and Kumasi betray the decadent attitude of the Fourth Republican Ghanaian.
Let me not waste your time before you ask what I mean.
These perennial deluge in Ghana during the rainy seasons was created by none other than the political actors of the Fourth Republic who should have been solving our mess as a country.
You know what they say “the state of mind informs the state of the art” of a people. You shall know a people by the way they live and their leaders, by the way they think and behave.
If what we put in is what we get, as the karmic law dictates in this terrestrial plane, then we are wholly responsible for the deluge in the country and deserve every bit of the disaster that comes with it until we deal with it holistically.
From the President to the lay, from the concerned to the unconcerned, from the unconscious to the conscious citizens of Ama Ghana.
These perennial floods wreaking havoc in the two major cities reveals the clutter of the system the people live in. As we only consume without thinking about where the waste is going, in this day and age.
The blithering situation was effectively different before the advent of the Fourth Republican dispensation.
This indictment is rightly passed on them because they inherited better and thus must do better to show us the way to do better with the country we love so much.
Instead, they invented this political chimera on April 28,1992 to swallow us from the front and rear.
Their type of education and political system have produced the most average and gullible citizens the country has ever seen since its auspicious birth in 1957. The kind of citizens who are trained by rote (chew and pour), eschewing anything practical, in the end falling for slick talkers instead of real doers.
We live in a decadent of a country which have no underground tunnel systems to carry our waste and rainwater away from us yet award contracts to cronies called “contractors” to construct shallow and open gutters to do what, I cannot tell.
We are citizens of a country without any efficient waste management mechanisms to effectively manage our waste but rather leave it in the hands of private cronies who are sleeping on a huge chunk of gold mine just like the state with our natural resources.
A beautiful and blessed country whose citizens are burying it in waste. As a result of the lack of waste collection systems like waste and litter bins located at vantage points in the major cities for commuters to dump their waste instead ends up in the shallow gutters and drains.
We live in a suffering mother Ghana where citizens clean their compounds and only a few pay for individual waste collectors to carry their waste, the rest dump their rot in the shallow gutters and drains without fear.
As a country, we have sadly created two dying cities where nouveau riche citizens acquire land anywhere from hungry land sellers who sacrifice waterways and Ramsar Sites to the detriment of them and us all without proper checks, only for nature to teach us the bitter lessons.
Also, the volatility of the political duopoly in the country without any national agenda makes it hard for any effective private option to our waste management. It is an obvious truth that the political class of the Fourth Republic have no interest in solving our problems.
We have become acritical and hypocritical people easily bought with basic provisions into politics by politicians who are clueless about our plight.
What Can We Do To Correct This Perennial Problem?
The first option for lasting solutions to our burgeoning waste and flood problems is for the state officials to make clear of all waterways, illegal structures and Ramsar Sites for easy clearance of waste water.
Then the problems must be acknowledged as a national problem that must be dealt with multilaterally, devoid of partisan tendencies that impede progress disguised as “democracy”.
The government, it doesn’t matter which party is in power, must make it a point to dealing with our burgeoning waste problems institutionally by way of efficient state management systems, as that can even bring revenue to Ghana. They know waste management is a MONEY maker.
Quality, durable waste and litter bins must be the NEW CULTURE, by chaining them at vantage positions in the cities for effective waste and litter collection. Effective education and policing of waste collection must be enforced on Ghanaians for it to become the NEW CULTURE. THE BORLA MUST BE ARRESTED…!!!
That is why I have big respect for conscious, brave and patriotic youth like Ralph St. Williams aka Ralph De FellowGhanaian and few others who use their channels on social media consciously in the filth campaign.
When it comes to the operation “ARREST THE BORLA” campaign, I doff my hat to the TheBusStopBoys, an educated and conscious group of young individuals who have taken it upon themselves to declog gutters and drains in Accra, bringing the awareness that the fight is on us and we need all hands in the campaign.
I must entreat all in earnest, that, with our current problems we must all embark on the “ARREST THE BORLA” campaign for our own good.
Each individual must be responsible for the policing of waste collection in our neighborhoods and the cities.
The police and citizens must be given the right to arrest waste offenders in the country.
The military personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces must also be brought to bear in this fight by deploying them to clean the cities for the people to see. This will serve as deterrence to indiscriminate littering and dumping in the cities.
Ghanaian Social media streamers and influencers must make it a sacrifice to promote the “ARREST THE BORLA” campaign for effective reach and awareness. We must all learn to be conscious activists in the fight against the borla and perennial flooding.
The twin catastrophe of flood and fire of June 3, 2015, in Accra that claimed the lives of 150 people and maimed countless others, destroying properties in the process should be what it is, a tragic reminder and warning to our stubborn filthiness.
And that unfortunate disaster must not be allowed to revisit us every June in the rainy seasons. We must all acknowledge our looming plight and consciously act together to curb it in the shortest possible time.
The school curricula, especially that of our universities must endeavor to change their courses, sacrificing the archaic and inefficient courses for scientific waste management courses. These are the heuristic approaches that will show that we are a serious country that can deal with its own problems.
Children must be taught in schools to abstain from dumping their waste especially plastic waste anywhere unless in a waste bin, just as they do in schools. If we want to really curb this recurrent disaster then we must start them young. The down-up approach, starting from the young to the old, will be the best and sustainable approach to dealing with our mess.
Let’s not become a people without honor, who do not cherish what we have been bequeathed. The best inheritance of a nation, with the best human and natural resources to enjoy heaven on earth. We must learn to be citizens who cannot be easily taken for a ride by incompetent and corrupt politicians.
GHANA, our beloved country must be cleansed from all the choking filth and deluge. We must protect the lives of our vulnerable citizens and their legitimate properties. And the government must enforce the laws by razing down illegal buildings and squatter camps in the way of water.
Also important is the fight against Galamsey still ongoing and polluting our most cherished water bodies in the country. It must be salient to warn that culprits of illegal mining and galamsey must be prosecuted and punished to serve as deterrence.
Offenders must be punished, be they politicians, rich foreigners and even laborious Ghanaians. A country with majority of religious citizens, I beseech you that “Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness”. Let’s not drive God away from us with our borla problems. Let’s show everyone that God is here and we have the mind to enjoy our blessings.
LET US ALL CHANGE OUR ATTITUDES TOWARDS INDISCRIMINATE WASTE DISPOSAL IN THE COUNTRY. LET US SAVE MOTHER GHANA BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
This is the lamentations of BKY, a conscious and patriotic citizen of mother Ghana…!!!
By BARIMA KWABENA YEBOAH
@Awukugua President
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