Report by Kwabena Adu Koranteng
By the end of 2014, Ghana will be switching its terrestrial broadcasting system from Analogue to digital.
The transformation in the country?s broadcasting system is likely to compel many Ghanaians to abandon or clear their current television sets that have no digital functions and purchase new ones. .
The clearance of the existing TV sets with the changes from the analogue to digital means that most television sets will end up in waste bins and the refuse dumps or possibly, in the custody of?? electronic waste collectors commonly called ?allumi boys?
The electronic waste collectors roam the streets of Ghana to gather these waste products and extract the aluminum content in them. They then sell the aluminum contents as scrap metals to the aluminum molten companies to be refined into ore. The scraps dealers then gather the plastic remains of the electronic waste and the other toxic contents together and burn them in the open air at their location at Agbogboloshie, a suburb of Accra.? The smoke generated by the burnt plastic and other toxic elements emits into the sky to contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer.
Edmund Ntow Fianko, head of the engineering department of the National Communications authority in an interview said there are?? no current measures in place to handle the huge number of?? wastes that would be generated by the changes expected to occur in the country?s telecommunication system and the digital world.? He acknowledged that a huge number of televising sets that do not meet the required standards would be disposed off in the process. ?This is a worrying situation?? which ought to be handled carefully.? If we allow the abandoned TV sets to get into the hands of the allumi boys we are in for doom since they are likely to be burnt and the smoke emitted into the atmosphere. This is likely to contribute to global warming and possibly affect the climate.
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