The rainy season has begun at a time when the garbage collection system is in its most dire state in Accra. Most households have overfilled garbage bins sitting either within their houses or at the gates waiting for collection date of which they might never know.
Not even the agencies responsible for the collection know when the overfilled containers would be emptied, and that is a painful reality ? another evidence of our failing systems.
We have listened to the various interventions in the media by relevant agencies and find it regrettable that the possibility of a disease outbreak when the appropriate response is not triggered, appears to have lost on us.
While the impression is that there is a flurry of activities to resolve the issue of locating an appropriate dumping site for the tonnes of garbage the city generates, the reality is that there is more PR or politics if you like, than actual action.
The politics behind it all is beginning to be nauseating and we would have rather more is done to resolve what is now a perennial affair than what we are witnessing.
Nobody wants the buck to stop on their desks but the fact remains that government should take the blame for the seeming irresponsibility.
It is regrettable that after so much investment in this sector, as evidenced in the many garbage collecting vehicles purchased by the various companies involved in this business, we still grope in the dark as it were.
Let us not run away from the fact that a disease outbreak is beckoning us as the rains commence in earnest, if those in-charge continue to look in the opposite direction.
It has been a while since we experienced a cholera outbreak and would rather the status quo remains. Unfortunately, the relevant authorities appear indifferent to the beckoning danger.
We had earlier gathered that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning had not released funds to those responsible for securing the dumping sites or so.
The theories are multifaceted and so we get lost occasionally when fresh ones emerge ? when the agencies seek to cover their shortcomings through boring banters.
Let the truth be told so an appropriate antidote can be unearthed. Otherwise the noise would continue and the journey would terminate nowhere.
We have heard about how funding has adversely affected the recycling project which publicity made fantastic headlines when it was floated. It is an initiative which could have taken us out of the mess in which we are today, but that too has been negatively impacted by bad governance.
Managing a disease outbreak is certainly more costly than releasing resources for the clearing of domestic garbage, especially during this time of the year.
