Don't Judge...Stay Curious....

Gutters in the streets of Bolga

While I have been here in Ghana I have been surprised at the vastness of trash littered throughout the cities, towns and farmlands. You see trash in the streets, in the gutters, in rivers, around homes and in the trees and shrubs in piles or just scattered about. Gusts of wind will send plastic bags flying through the air. The further out you get into the much smaller villages the less trash you see on the ground as these communities don’t use as much single use plastic items. While seeing garbage and trash on the ground may just seem unaesthetic and dirty to look at it is important to understand the detrimental impacts that it has on the health and wellbeing of a community and its people.

Currently there is a very limited waste collection system in some of the more populated areas of Ghana however, these services cost money, discouraging most from using these systems. This leaves most garbage burned or illegally dumped. With a limited or inaccessible system like this it leaves the people here with very few choices other than just leaving it on the ground . There is not enough resources for illegal garbage dumping to be enforced. The waste left on the ground contaminates the water systems and the soil. This contamination leads to illnesses, diseases and impacts the ability of crops to grow. Burning garbage releases toxic smoke that can cause many respiratory problems such as asthma or lung cancer.

In Ghana the national economy is one of the main factors that is standing in the way of developing adequate waste management systems. And on the other hand these conditions are leading to health conditions that further burden the economy of the country. these challenges exist in a positive feedback loop as one impacting factor leads to the next in the way they get perpetuated. There is a sense of irony here with the production of plastics and the wasting of them. On plastic drink bottles and snack wrapper they will say produced in Ghana and to “keep our country clean, please recycle”.

It is easy to look at all this garbage and waste and be frustrated and confused . However, it is important that we stay curious and take the time to learn so we can start to understand why the conditions are like this. Understanding this allows us to take blame off of the people who are “littering” and realize that this is a large systemic issue that cannot be simply fixed with one thing. I hope in the future that this country of strong people is able to build its capacity to address this area of public health.

Posted by Mallory, 4th year BSN Student