Healthy living is the desire of almost everyone, but people tend not to really pay attention to their health and also pay less attention to the environment they find themselves within.
Keeping the environment clean is the responsibility of the individual and some key players.
These responsibilities of the key players have been lacking in most areas in Ablekuma, Heap of refuse can be seen around houses, markets, in front of shops, between roads and even some health facilities.
Drainage systems are blocked with littered wastes while the water bodies are heavily polluted.
These issues become worse when there is a heavy down pour of rain.
According to residents in some of these areas, they do not have bins to keep their refuse adding that, no waste management company comes for their wastes due to the bad nature of the roads.
Some also say they have to spend so much money for the guys with tricycles to come for their refuse.
Community members are mostly seen preparing foods few kilometers away from an open sewage system which poses a great risk to the health of the people living in Ablekuma.
Speaking to an Environmental Health Officer from the Ga West Metropolis, Government does not provide waste bins to households and there are no Government waste management, but will speak to private waste managements to provide more education to the people in the community of the need to have bins to keep a clean environment.
Meanwhile, residents claim, the private waste management comes to their homes to take their details, promise to come back with bins but they do not show up.
They also said there was an initiative, where members of the community organize communal labour every weekend which went on for sometime and the last one recorded was when the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr. Henry Quartey led a clean-up exercise in Tuesday,30th August 2022 and it is yet to yield any meaningful result.
The residents have therefore urged the government to come to their aid because the situation could get worse if nothing is done by the start of the raining season.
By Lartey Priscilla Naa Odey
Student of Unimac-GIJ
