Environmental Health Officers at the Ayawaso East Municipal Assembly say they are not oblivious of the sanitation concerns within their area that lead to perineal flooding.
The rains have set in and many communities risk flooding and possibly disease outbreaks due to the poor sanitation conditions.
Many areas within the Greater Accra Region have gained notoriety for poor sanitation practices which leads to flooding almost every time it rains and residents within the Nima and Kanda enclave in Accra are no strangers to perennial flooding whenever the rains set in. No matter how little or heavy the down pour, these communities will be flooded.
Gutters across these communities remain choked with refuse, as residents lament the lack of proper dumping sites—leaving them with no choice than to dispose of waste directly into the drains.
Close to a gutter in Nima is a resident Alhaj and his wife who sell food in front of their abode. He tells me they have no other option than to dump their refuse in the gutters since there are no dumping sites in the area.
“We don’t have a container in the whole area. So where should we dump the refuse? We are the culprits and no one else. Even my household and I we all dump into the gutter,” he confessed.
Another resident, popularly known as Akufo-Addo, would want authorities to bring security around the gutters to monitor persons who dump in them.
“People just dump indiscriminately. They don’t even listen when you complain. The government should bring people to guard over the gutter.”
Rukiya says she is always anxious when the rains begin. Her shop is never spared from the floodwaters.
Sheriff Hamdawaiy, an Environmental Health Officer at the assembly says they are intensifying awareness in collaboration with other stakeholders to address the issue.
“We are putting in place measures to solve the problems. The officers are also doing sensitization as the rains come with that, they can remind the community members of the challenges associated with their practices in terms of how they manage the refuse and the effects on the community. We are working. We will keep doing the education,” he intimated.
Until drastic interventions are implemented to address the persistent indiscriminate dumping of refuse and the poor management of sanitation within communities, flooding will keep exposing the vulnerabilities of urban settlements in the country.
