This river, if you can still call it that, carrying plastic waste, sewerage and garbage, flows from Accra into the Korle Lagoon - apparently one of the most polluted water bodies on the planet. The Korle Lagoon ultimately flows into the sea.
I feel I should write more about this subject, but I find photos like this one overwhelming.
*Update*: I was asked in the comments why this situation arises - is there no other way of disposing of garbage? In case you don't read my response in the comments here are two statistics to explain this image:
- only 40% of Ghana's hard waste is collected.
- only 12% of Ghanaians have access to running water and sanitation.
or to put it another way:
- 60% of Ghana's hard waste is not collected.
- 88% of Ghanaians do not have access to running water and sanitation.
We are part of the 12% who theoretically have access to running water, however, when it does flow, the water only flows once a week and it hasn't flowed at all for the last two weeks.
Photo credit: Nyani Quarmyne
Why does it get so bad? Is there no other way of getting rid of rubbish?
ReplyDeleteApparently only 40% of Ghana's hard waste is collected.
ReplyDeleteOf what is collected, a lot of that it is dumped in places that lack proper disposal techniques.
A friend whose waste is collected from her house recently questioned the garbage men about where the waste is taken once it is collected. He replied - 'You don't want to know.'
ReplyDeleteFiona, it's time to act presidential!!
ReplyDeleteWhen we were in the pristine Banda Islands of Indonesia, the village garbage collector would wheel out the trash out onto the pier and dump it into the ocean. Sadly, it's a stage of development that most nations go through, some don't get past it.....but the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" keeps growing..
This_is_horrible.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the problems African and also many Asian and South American countries face is that there simply is not enough money for proper garbage disposal. Well, it might be there in theory but it is not a priority for the government. There are so many things people care more about; health care, education, entertainment and of course having food and a functioning infrastructur. I often notice in Western media (Germany, Canada) that they complain about the environmental pullution in developing countries. But the question is: Do you really care about the garbage if parts of your population is starving?
Of course it is important to save the environment and I totally support cleaning up this mess. However, you have to think about the people too and if the government actually cares about cleaning everything up.
This leads me to a question I wanted to ask you, Fiona, a while ago. I hope it is okay to ask this: how much corruption exists in Ghana compared to other African countries? This might also be part of the problem.
I recently had an interesting discussion with some friends of mine. One guy is from Egypt, the other one from India. We all agreed that there is curruption in every single country - the difference is, that in the West corruption only affects the "high ranks", politians, managers etc.. In Egypt and India corrupion is part of everyone's daily life. In fact, you get access to certain services only by puting money into a private purse. In my peers' opinion, their home countries will never become "like Europe or America" with corruption all over the place.
How is it in Ghana?
Re corruption - I don't think I'm ready to write about this topic yet. You may, however, find this article interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2011/02/14/corruption-in-ghana-living-large-but-producing-very-little/
Hey Fiona
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, I will have a look at it.