Tema-Ghana, Aug 31 – Residents of Kanewu in the Tema West Municipality, Greater Accra Region has called on law enforcement officials to take action against open defecation in the municipality especially around the high-tension area.
Some members of the community have resorted to using the high-tensioned area as a place of convenience, as nature calls it, and wantonly packaging human excreta into black polythene bags and dumping them on the hipped refuse.
A Kanewu resident Mr Kofi Steven explained during a tour of the environment how he worked to clean the area’s bushes in order to deter people from using the place for open defecation.
He continued by saying that the majority of the locals had turned most of the community’s open spaces as garbage dump, endangering the community’s need for sanitation.
“A notice board was erected in the vicinity to warn people against defecating and dumping trash in public, but it has since been taken down.
“There is no one to regulate and penalise them” stressing “we must begin to humiliate people who indulges in open defecation which is unhygienic behaviour,” he stated.
Mr. Steven pleaded with the Tema West Municipal Assembly to help clean the overgrown areas to deter open defecation and to appoint a monitoring team to patrol the area looking for violators of sanitation rules.
A nearby petty trader, Madam Elizabeth Tetteh also spoke about how she has stopped selling “Fante Kenkey” because she feels the area isn’t sanitary enough to support her business.
According to scrub dealer Souleyman Mohammed, the odour and fly annoyance in that location lower the aesthetic quality of the neighbourhood, and because there are no strict laws against open defecation, most inhabitants pay no attention when such behaviour is observed and warned against.
He suggested the provision of sanitation amenities like public restrooms, trash tanks, and a location for solid garbage.
