Living in Disharmony with Lady Atlantic

A cesspit emptier dumping untreated excreta directly into the Atlantic Ocean at Ngyiresia, a suburb of Sekondi

In two weeks, it would be 6th March and Ghana our beloved country would turn 54. As is the convention, the following day (Monday) would be a public holiday and some Ghanaians who live close to the Atlantic Ocean would head to the beach to have a jolly good time. Some would just stand and play in the sand because they can’t swim. Some would dip into the waters to have a swim. In the standing, playing and dipping, they would deal with indescribable filth.

Increasingly, I wrestle with my Ghanaian self when I visit the beach and/or eat sea food. I grew up along the Ada beach. I used to love to be soaked in the bluish cold salty waters to wash away my childish funk by standing in the beach sand until my feet became planted with the on-and-off tidal waves of the ocean. No more! Now, all I can allow myself to do is to get as close to the sea as possible and just watch, staring hard into the mystery of the universe, and of creation itself.

If you haven’t noticed, our national funk is showing itself off in sections of part of the Atlantic Ocean. A garbage dump has developed. The colour has changed from nature’s blue to a certain shade of brown. This situation should be frightening and disturbing to every lover of nature.

In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo wrote, ‘The history of men is reflected in the history of sewers…. The sewer is the conscience of a city.’ The Atlantic Ocean has become a sewer, a giant pot of soup filled with assorted pieces of garbage, a petri-dish of some sort. Ghana‘s conscience shows in what continues to happen to the sea. Taking a dip in the waters of the sea is not what it used to be. Why would you bath in filth? And the filth is two-fold: garbage and excreta.

Atlantic as garbage dump:

In the past year, I spent some time sitting at a little distance at the beach in the general neighbourhood of the Independence Square as my favourite way of connecting with nature. I prefer the ocean to the forest because the sight of it gives me peace that passeth all understanding. The sight still exudes peace but peace that is associated with human foolishness. It is now a common sight to witness the sea vomit garbage, in bundles.

The garbage is of varied sizes and textures. As you watch, a fascinating thing happens. Garbage floats on the waters, tossed up and down, back and forth. As if by a magnetic pull, some garbage attracts other garbage and if you watch long enough for about one hour, they begin to form a certain sisterly/brotherly union. As they get together into a lumpy embrace, the sea unburdens itself by ferrying the garbage to shore.

As the garbage lays helpless, a kind tide comes along and with the knock-about motions, cause the vomited garbage to change its shape. At one moment, the garbage might look like a human being, sleeping in foetal position. At another moment, it could resemble a log of wood. But after some time, since the garbage has nowhere to go and just lays there, and the knock-about motion of the currents continue, the ocean begins to wash off and take away some of the garbage back into its ageless bosom.

This is the garbage dance. The Atlantic Ocean does not know what to do with the garbage we bequeath to it. It hates it so it constantly vomits it back to land. But since we don’t clean our beaches regularly, the garbage remains on shore, at the mercy of the currents, to be tossed about over and over again.

The Matter of Human Excreta:

Much of the excreta of the population that live along the beach is dumped into the sea. Here is how. By some ‘ways-and-means’, the Waste Management Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assemby arranges to have the stuff from the capital city collected. Then, all roads lead to a spot at Korle Gorno – not too far from Ghana’s premier hospital (the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital), dubbed ‘Lavender Hill’ because it smells so bad. As Accra sets the example, Sekondi/Takoradi follows suit.

In both cities, once upon a time, equipment installed to scientifically treat the excreta to make it safe and acceptable to be dumped into the Atlantic Ocean broke down about a full decade ago. Yet, these cities disregard our safety and continue to dump untreated stuff directly into the ocean. By international laws and conventions, ships are not allowed to dump waste into the ocean. They are required to bring them to land for proper disposal. So why is it that we take our waste from land and dump into the sea?

Considering the recorded 28 percentage growth in the provisional figures of the 2010 National Population and Housing Census and the increasing rural-urban migration, one can sadly say that the quantity of human excreta to be dumped into the Atlantic Ocean will also increase in due course.

Road-map to Atlantic harmony:

Despite our super-zealous Christianity, we treat the Atlantic Ocean with so much disrespect. Chances are that there are some laws in our books that abhor treating the ocean as a garbage dump. Democracy without law enforcement is nothing but a voting system.

A clause in the law establishing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA Act 419, Section 13, Sub-Section One) states: ‘Where it appears to the Agency that the activities of any undertaking poses a serious threat to the environment or to the public health, the Agency may serve on the person responsible for the undertaking, an enforcement notice requiring him to take such steps as the Agency thinks necessary to prevent or stop the activity.’

There we have it! At least one government agency has the mandate to stop the defilement of Ghana’s side of the Atlantic Ocean. My checks reveal that the EPA is not adequately staffed to make it effective enough to do right for Ghana in ways that will be fully impactful. So whoever is responsible for adequately strengthening and equipping the EPA should just do it if we consider our land, air and waters critical to sustain our lives as a people.

For starters, the EPA can at the barest minimum, bring to book, the leadership of Accra and Sekondi/Takoradi and give them six months to stop dumping untreated excreta of about six million human beings directed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Regardless of the location of their constituencies, Parliamentarians spend much time in Accra so they also contribute their honourable excreta into the massive whole that is dumped into the ocean. They should therefore add their honourable voices and push for a solution to this nasty offensive disgraceful and unconscionable situation.

Since the excreta we’re talking about include that of the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency the Professor should also intervene and add his all-powerful voice to effect change. No, he should give a directive and order for a solution. Period!