Public Toilets And Refuse Dumpsites; The Case Of Ayigya, Kumasi

Issues of sanitation keep coming up whenever politicians in this part of the world mount their political platforms to speak.

The issue however remains, despite numerous promises and lip-service. Ayigya is a suburb of Kumasi; the Garden City of Ghana- once envied for its cleanliness and rich vegetation.

The focus fm news team, in its quest to determine how seriously the people there take issues of sanitation, paid the suburb a visit.

But it is obvious the residents of Ayigya are not happy with the current state of sanitation as it stands and complain bitterly about some of the challenges they face. Most of the issues they raised bordered on public toilets and refuse dumpsites.

Most of the refuse dumpsites identified by our newsmen were cited at public places with one very close to a school and other residencies. The Assemblyman for the area, Kojo Frimpong who spoke to Focus fm decried this situation and says he is doing everything possible to ensure that those refuse dumpsites are relocated to more appropriate locations since it constitutes a health hazard to the people around that area.

He tells us there has been an upsurge in the mosquito population generally; a situation he believes is due to poor location and management of these refuse dumps and choked gutters.

The Assemblyman also lamented that there is only one vehicle that conveys rubbish from the area, but says the vehicle breaks down so frequently and is counter –productive as it rather does a better job at spreading the rubbish collected all over the place.

According to Mr. Kojo Frimpong, he has informed the authorities at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) of their plight and is expecting a positive solution to this problem soon.

Other people complained about the fact that residents continued to dump refuse in the gutters, causing them to get clogged; a situation that causes a great stench which they think is a health risk.

Everyone focus news spoke to, seem to be waiting for the Assemblyman or the “Authorities” to help resolve their situation.

Another important challenge raised by residents of Ayigya was a lack of toilet facilities in many homes. For some, this is a major problem for them since they have to queue at public toilets for long periods every morning before going to work. Kids are not given preferential treatment here when nature calls. They have to queue-like anybody else.

A public toilet attendant who agreed to speak to us confirmed that residents pay ten Pesewas (GH?0.10) to use the facility. She says though they try their best to keep the place clean, some patrons of the facility continued to mess up the place.

She also complains that people employed various gimmicks in order to avoid paying for the use of the place. Some people wait till late at night when there are no attendants at the facility, to use the place while some avoid the place altogether.

How these people free their bowels is a subject better left to the imagination. According to the attendant, the proceeds from the facility go to KMA. In all, two public toilets were identified by our newsmen throughout the suburb. Residents agree that there are a lot of houses without toilet facilities, yet landlords and landladies rent out these buildings to them at exorbitant rates. This raises an important question of whose job it is to ensure that houses are furnished with good toilet facilities.

Whatever the answer is to that question, it can be said comfortably at this point that somebody is not doing his work, and hence making the provision of toilets in homes a matter of choice instead of a requirement backed by law.

-Bernard Buachi,

Focus FM, Kumasi.