Taming reckless littering in Accra: The way out
Last Friday, while I stood at a bus stop strategically to board the nearest commercial bus, a young man standing by me did something that tickled my nerves.
After sucking every drop of sweetness out of a fan ice sachet he was holding, he threw the plastic on the ground, ignoring the bin at the bus stop.
I breathed in deeply ready to give him an earful of education but my bus arrived. Rush hour at that bus stop is always a pushing and shovelling match.
I jumped in.
After more than 60 years of independence, we’ve seen rankings that indicates the country’s performance on many indexes.
The Global Peace Index ranks Ghana the 44TH most peaceful country in the world and the 4TH in Africa with a score of 1.796. Our Press Freedom has for years been among the top five.
However, I doubt if same Ghana can still be ranked amongst the top 50 cleanest countries in the world.
In all the communities and towns that I happen to pass through, I always see a pile of rubbish either on the roadsides, in-front of houses, on streets and inside gutters.
I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that some people see litter in their communities which keep increasing by the day, but refuse to get rid of it, in order to keep their surroundings tidy.
Is this problem of littering one that can be blamed on poor administration of local government authorities who have not instituted strong policies to battle indiscriminate waste disposal? or it is simply a result of the recalcitrant attitude of most Ghanaians who dump rubbish at any place not considering the filth that it will generate.
Well, the waste that is seen in our communities is definitely a result of human activities but the government also has a responsibility of finding innovative ways of tackling the problem.
The Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, in a recent interview with Joy News claimed that Accra is 85% clean. I find it very worrisome considering even the low number of dustbins that can be found on the streets of Accra.
recycling
However, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a waste management company formed in 2006 under the company’s Act has been very instrumental in collecting the country’s waste.
But our approach to handling plastic waste is one that 100 Zoomlions cannot save us from unless we pay attention to more education and law enforcement for cleanliness to manifest as a norm in our society.
Data from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly suggests that the capital city alone generates more than 3,500 tonnes of waste but 2,500 tonnes of that is collected.
Value chain opportunities in recycling are at their nascent stage. So less than 5% of the country’s plastic waste is recycled.
The opportunities in the recycling of waste are endless.
Our laws are also toothless.
I believe there are weak legislations when it comes to issues of sanitation as compared to other matters including, crime, murder, robbery and defamation have clear-cut sanctions.
If there were sanctions to hold people responsible for dumping waste at places irresponsibly, I am very confident a lot of people will desist from littering the environment, especially in broad daylight to avoid punishment.
Singapore which is part of the cleanest countries in the world has strict legislation on sanitation whereby people caught littering are fined $300 or cleaning the streets for a week. It is even illegal to spit in public spaces, including roads, sideways and parks.
Littering has become a widespread problem in the country as a whole, hence a deliberate effort must be made by a lot governmental institutions as well as non-governmental institutions to educate citizens on the reasons they must not litter their environment.
Frequent education over a period of time will go a long way to make people very conscious of how they manage and dispose waste in their communities.
There must also be an intensive distribution of dustbins from region to region placed at points where people are likely to litter.
These strategies, which can help reduce the rate of indiscriminate waste disposal, will still be short-lived if the roots of these problems are not tackled.
The public and private sectors must also help create recycling companies that will be able to convert waste materials into other useful products like energy, fertilizers and reusable plastics.
We can’t jail people for littering, but we can make them clean where they litter. Non-custodial sentencing can help us in many ways control the incessant habit of littering.
That can happen when all citizens are conscientised to keep an eye on the environment and hold those who break the law accountable
As the saying goes “Cleanliness is next to godliness”, so it will be very inadequate if this nation claims to be guided by moral principles and a peace-loving one but we keep walking and going about our daily activities in filth.
While the government has a role in taming our waste management crisis, there is also a lot to contribute as citizens. We can’t continue to expect so do business as usual while holding the President’s feet to fire that Accra should be the cleanest city by the end of 2020.
We must take personal responsibility at all times for how clean we want our environment to look. We have no choice because it is our civic responsibility.