In the year 2007 the Ghana Tourist Board adjudegd Sunyani as the cleanest city in Ghana. When the award was present to the Paramount chief of Sunyani, Nana Asor Nkrawir II, he congratulated the then MCE, Hon.Twumasi and the Assembly for the role played in ensuring Sunyani gets into the global front. The chief cautioned the Assembly not to remain complecent and relax but rather work assidiously to maintain the standard of cleanliness. Just a decade and two years down the line, filth in between Ghana Revenue Authority ( GRA) and Ghana Post has become a shrine. I happened to pass through the street yesterday and the filth caught my attention, I approached those selling food around less than 100 metres from this poor sanitation area, I quizzed them about what they are doing about this canker, the usual I do not care attitude was evident. I saw flies flying from the filth area to the food vendors spots and people were in que to buy food without considering the health implication and complication of the dirt in the gutter. The gutter has an inlet without an outlet. I was concerned as a citizen and a health advocate, I rushed to the office of the regional director of Ghana post to alert him of the eye sore dirt that has engulfed his vicinity and wether or not he is aware and what he is doing about it. The director welcomed me with warmth and told me he just came from the scene and is making arrangements for the services of ZoomLion to take care of the issue. I suggested engaging all those who sell and live around the vicinity including GRA and cocoa board to tidy up the area after which they should be sensitized on the need to keep the environment clean. I asked myself a lot of questions: When did we start loosing our consciousness as citizens? Do we have Assembly members in the communities in Ghana and are they aware of the pressing issues such as sanitation in the communities? Why has apathy being entrenched in the Ghanaian communities like this?
Way Forward: There is the urgent need to engage citizens in community building and take responsibility for where they live, we must go back to the time when our communities lived together and where people could come together to build basic things that the community needed, we must the break culture of apathy that has being created because of politics in our country in order for our nation to progress and develope, we all have contribution to make towards national development, not everything is political, the citizens of Sunyani and by extension Ghana need to wake up to the good old days where we were the gate keepers and the city watchers, it is only in that that we can develope. Filth should be an issue of the past, when you see something, say something.
Share and comment as we develope sunyani and Ghana.
Rev.jefferson Agbotro Kwasi
Community Development Consultant
Lead Consultant, JAK Consult
www.jakconsultant.com
www.fohaghana.org
www.founder.fohaghana.org