Tema Newtown – Potential imminent epidemic outbreak

It is unbelievable, the way people placed in authority to serve us, neglect their duties with careless abandon and turn round to blame the people they are to serve as the cause of the problem. 

There are a few questions that needs urgent answers.  How do you expect the pedestrian to keep the city clean when there are no trash bins along the streets?

How many people will be disciplined enough to keep a biscuit wrapper in his or her bag or pocket and dispose of it when he or she gets home?  How many will willingly observe this reasonable behaviour if there are no consequences to their flouting this observance of cleanliness etiquette. 

The Buzstopboys, the group of young people dedicated to bringing sanitation awareness issues to the government and people of Ghana, posted a video of the filth at Tema Newtown and it was horrible to say the least.  

Aside of the fact that the area is not fit for human habitation, the people were openly defecating along the beach and another sad thing is that, fish that will eventually land on dining tables at people’s homes as part of their meals, were being dried amid this filth.  

The gentleman in the video highlighting the unhygienic conditions made a very profound statement concerning lack of beds in our hospitals.  He said that if we continue to live like this, a lot of people will fall sick and there will never be enough beds at the hospitals to accommodate the sick. 

There is an urgent need to put in mobile toilets as a stop gap measure as authorities grapple with how to transform the Tema Newtown into a livable place.  There are some people who are so used to the idea of open defecation at the beach, to the extent that even if you provide the mobile toilets, they will still not use them. 

With such people, the law must deal harshly with, to serve as a deterrent to others.  The punishment should not be prison term but be made to clear the beach from every trace of human excreta.

In the video, a woman was squatting at the beach together with her little girl, relieving themselves in real time despite the presence of people watching them from a distance and videoing the insanitary act as well as unlawful act. 

The other thing that worried me was the fact that she was teaching her child to become a law breaker and also an environmental terrorist. 

The Bible says that teach the child the way she should go and when she grows, she would not depart from it and she was teaching her wrong values, to become an environmental terrorist.

Under normal circumstances, women are very shy people and so with people watching, would not have done what she did but it tells a story of indoctrination to do the wrong thing. 

Apparently, just as she was teaching her daughter, it might have been passed on from her mother so it has become a generational thing.  It reminds me of a soap advert but this behaviour is of a negative generational transfer of values.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) in charge of Tema Newtown must put personnel there to guard the beach to prevent anybody from even dreaming about going there to do the unthinkable. 

Mobile toilets must also be provided immediately so that residents in that enclave, will have no excuse whatsoever to engage in this despicable behaviour at the beach.  The refuse that has piled up there must be dealt with as a matter of national emergency. 

Otherwise should an epidemic breakout, I guess there will not be enough beds in all the hospitals in Tema combined, to take care of the sick.  It is the responsibility of MCEs and District Chief Executives (DCEs) and therefore the Assemblies, to ensure that the communities under their jurisdiction are environmentally sound. God bless.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah