We are all guilty

Let me ask. How independent and patriotic are we in the area of politics, economics and sanitation?

Ghana is, indeed, bleeding, and it is so profuse that immediate intervention is needed to salvage it.

Poor sanitation and improper environmental practices have engulfed the country, and that is very scary.

The filth on our streets, predominantly plastic waste is troubling. Lack of knowledge and intransigence present their problems in plastic waste management, and it is common knowledge that Ghana is riddled with filth.

Recently, I had a shock of my life when watching UTV’s evening news. In the reportage, the “ODAW” river, which is in the centre of the country’s busy capital city was filled with plastic wastes, blocking channels that could have facilitated the free flow of water into the adjoining ocean.

There was a machine in the river desilting the drainage system to allow the free flow of water. But I do not want to believe this filth management project comes cheap.

The government is using scarce resources for that exercise. That is why as a nation, rethinking a clean environment must start now.

Information emerging from the ministry of sanitation and water resources also indicates that the government has allocated a whooping GH 197 million Cedis to desilt filth in major drainages in the country.

My question is – can’t this money be used for more pressing needs of the country than desilting filth since our bad habit of indiscriminate disposal of waste had not changed?

Ghanaians are crying over “schools under trees”, yet our indiscriminate disposal of waste continues. That is why the government had to spend a lot of money on waste management when that money could have been used to help end “schools under trees”.

As a country, we lament and point to hospitals with no beds, potholes on our major and auxiliary roads, and even deplorable roads leading to our rural communities.

Undeniably, our lifestyles do not support our demands. Why then can we blame the government for investing in the desilting of drainages?

Additionally, it’s appalling how sewage pipes find their way into gutters behind our houses. We open these pipes when it rains so that they will flow through the gutters. Aren’t we ashamed of this dastardly act?

We are gradually becoming nothing but an atimy to nation building. Hence, going forward, let us recognize that we are in the process of building our nation, and attitudinal change is the only antidote that can cure this malady of indiscriminate disposal of waste. It is through attitudinal change that we can make Ghana a better place to be. We cannot use our old habits to produce new outcomes. We need to change, though change, they say, is difficult.

The clarion call is that this great nation was left to us by our forebears. If we cannot do anything to add up to the past glory and better environmental standards, let us at least protect what Ghana had before us. If we fail to do so posterity will judge us.

It is shameful, this annual ritual of flooding, and its accompanying loss of lives and properties cannot be right. The campaign to end this starts now. But it starts with you and me, the need to make the right judgement to save our country.

A dirty nation attracts national shame, something that we must avoid in the interest of our health, and proper management of our scarce financial resources.

We all know this is the best and most sensible position available to us. And we must grab it now because we are a determined people.

Thank you.

God bless our homeland Ghana.