President Akufo-Addo’s promise to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa before his term of office ends appears to be a far-off dream, as the capital continues to battle with improper sanitation and its associated problems.
Some residents living particularly at Ring Road central in Accra seem to have lost all hope that the flooding crisis will ever end.
On Friday, 20th January 2018, Primenewsghana.com revealed the state of a huge gutter choked with volumes of plastic waste, dirty water from drainage pipes, human waste, which could lead to severe flooding if not dredged.
It would be recalled that people living in those areas were severely affected by the heavy rains that caused the area to be flooded in previous years.
Primenewsghana.com revisited the site of the gutter opposite the Paloma Hotel at Ring Road in Accra but was met with hostile treatment from the members of the community who complained bitterly that they were tired of speaking about the filth.
According to them, when the floods set in, their stories are captured in the media and they make numerous appeals to the authorities, however, no results are seen.
When asked what they as citizens have done to avert the situation and maintain sanitary conditions in the area, they blamed residents of nearby Nima and its environs for dumping refuse into the gutters, saying that the waste is pushed to their side whenever it rains and has accumulated over some months.
A young lady who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed that they have to endure mosquito bites coupled with malaria, diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera, and risk losing their homes and shops when it rains heavily. She recounted that last year, the place got so flooded that a team of men had to rescue her family as they were on the verge of drowning. Most of the shops and houses were also submerged in water.
Other residents drew our attention to the dilapidated bridge atop of the gutter which could easily break in the wake of more pressure from pedestrians using it or heavy rains.
They further appealed to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to take measures in avoiding further casualties during the rainy season by repairing the bridge and dredging the choked gutter.
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