Accra, Ghana - Day 24 (06/08/11)

Maria Booker

I can’t believe that I have been here for over three weeks, and I still really feel unaccomplished. I don’t know if it’s the Ghana reporting structure, the culture shock, or the overwhelming heat that is affecting me, but I know that this is completely out of character for me. Usually when I need something done, it’s done about a month before it’s due. I am actually quite frustrated with myself, because I am supposed to be studying for my LEED exam too while I am here, and that isn’t getting anywhere fast either. I think that laid back Ghanaian culture is in my veins now.

I finally found a decent internet café (that doesn’t serve food or coffee) where I was able to research until my little heart was content, so I have finally decided that my project will specifically focus on relating the malaria cases in Agbogbloshie and Cantonments to the level of illegal solid waste dumping in the area. A recent study was done in Nigeria that was similar, so I don’t feel like my research is fruitless. This just means that my proposal is still being worked on (3 weeks into the internship). My goal is to have this finished and emailed to my advisor by Friday, so that I can move forward with my findings so far.

Information still proves to be very frustrating to get here. I went back to the Korle Bu teaching hospital to enquire about a request for malaria numbers in these communities, and the person that I had requested them from had gone travelling for 8 months, and no one had any record of my request. Thanks a bunch, Freddy! Thankfully, someone stepped in and said he would help me. He sent me the numbers a few days later, but they were at a district level, when I need community level, so I still need to schedule another trip to go back and pester him some more.

I met with the National Mosquito Control Program to see what they are doing in terms of spraying in Accra, and I got some great information in regards to the areas that are sprayed and how often they are sprayed. I have requested the amount of chemicals that are sprayed in these areas each month to compare and see if some areas are receiving more spraying than others (i.e. high income areas)

I also attended a National Solid Waste conference yesterday, and got to meet with some stakeholders in the field. It was very interesting to hear about the new polluter pays program and how the polluters are in fact not paying, and the Waste Management Department are still paying for services in these areas when contractors don’t do their jobs properly. There were some stakeholders from different cities and countries there to offer advice and solutions to some of the problems. The conference was somewhat off topic from my research since I am more interested in illegal dumps, but everyone seemed to agree that the solid waste problems in the city where a concern for public health, and I had a few interesting conversations, and got a few contacts to follow up on.

This weekend, I spent some social time with my host. We visited the Kwame Nkrumah burial memorial. Kwame

Kwame Nkrumah Burial and Memorial Site

Nkrumahwas the first president of Ghana after independence in 1957, and an interesting point to note is that he was buried three times. The memorial site was beautiful, and there are even some trees in the gardens that were planted by known figures such as Jesse Jackson. There was also a peace pole in the garden sent from a school in Del Ray Beach, FL.

After the memorial site, we visited the Center for National Culture. This place is a little misleading in the title, there should be a “market” in that title somewhere. The title “Center for National Culture” has a museumy feel to it, but visiting the “Center” is a lot different.  The “Center” was a collection of people in a market place following us around until we went to their stall and making us “offers we couldn’t refuse” whether we wanted them or not. I am glad my host was with me, because this market was a little too pushy for me, she did however get me some really great deals on Kente Cloth and taught me some of the differences in quality.

Kente Cloth Salesman

The last place we visited was a little bar in Ussher Town that overlooked the ocean. This was really interesting because the views were spectacular. The tides were high to the waves were crashing against the rocks at almost our level and there was a great view of all the boats out fishing. It wasn’t until we sat for a while that I looked over when the waves were pulling back and saw a large pile of trash on one of the rocks, and then I realized how dirty the water was. I was struck for a second of a memory of a few weeks ago when I was in Chorkor. On the way home we passed some sanitation trucks on “Lavender Hill” dumping septic tanks wastes right into the ocean – no treatment! Lavender Hill was maybe a mile west of our location, so the brown tint to the water wasn’t just solid waste….and those fisherman….and the fish….I will never eat fish from the Atlantic ever again!

Ocean View from the Bar

The ironically named Lavender Hill dumping sewage directly into the Atlantic

Wait? Are they fishing for fish that people will eat????