‘Bola’ Crisis Looms In Accra

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May 6, 2008

By Dr Doris Dartey

We have experienced power outages – on-off; off-off-on; off-on-off-on-off-off! Some of us go for weeks, even months without a drop of water flowing through our pipes.

We even forget what it is like to have ‘pipe’ water and become content with well water, ‘Kufuor gallons’ or ‘delivery-truck’ water.

Worst of all, we have been asked trick-questions like: “What’s your preference – to be without water or electricity?” to which we find ourselves too unintelligent to give an informed answer because we are too dazed to make that bizarre choice.

For some, those ‘tragedies’ pale in comparison with Accra floods especially if caught in storm run-off that push water with varied levels of pollutants into places they do not belong. OK, so we are currently weathering Accra storms, again! But I want to dare say that you ain’t seen nothing yet in Accra, that is, unless some proactive measures are taken – urgently!

There is a disturbing situation that is rarely talked about. It is the status of Accra ‘bola’. This is probably because solid waste, rubbish, trash – better known as ‘bola’ – is a nasty word. Once you throw your household rubbish away, you never pause to wonder what happens to it. It belongs to the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ category of matters. Bola stinks. Bola looks nasty. Bola is like vomit; it comes out of your mouth and you don’t want to see or ever have anything to do with it again.

Fact: Only a dead person does not create waste; well, the corpse is the last waste every person generates, akin to the last show of a ‘blow-man’. Being alive therefore implies that we constantly create waste – everyday of our lives. The food we eat and easing ourselves are all definite opportunities to generate liquid and solid waste.

Where does yours end up? When was the last time you paid for your ‘bola’ to be collected? Do you ever factor in ‘bola’ bills as important life expenditure? It appears that paying for ‘bola’ has not fully made it into our expenditure psyche. Why should you gleefully spend money on food but unwilling to consider paying for the waste – its inevitable outcome? Who should be responsible for picking after you?

There is a crisis looming over Accra, the capital city of 51-year-old Ghana, the ‘Gateway into Africa’. A city of the profile of Accra has no sanitary landfill. What we have are traditional refuse dumping sites. They are like ‘kakai (scary)’. Shameful!

Currently, we have Oblogo ‘bola’, abandoned stone quarry sites, which are about full. On the way to Oblogo on the Weija road, you can’t miss to notice that you’re approaching a mighty ‘bola’ because of the unsightly droppings from ‘bola’ trucks.

Accra also has a monstrous sorry pathetic mountainous ‘bola’ dump at Teshie-Nungua Estates, in a neighbourhood where real people live. It started off with good intentions as a composting plant to produce fertilizer for farming. But in no time, with the usual neglect and irresponsible management, some machines broke down and ‘bola’ dumping overwhelmed the technology. The plant has been allowed to turn into a sanitation hell and a health disaster waiting to happen.

Leachate (fluids from the ‘bola’) seep into people’s homes and on the wings of the wind, unhealthy breezy stench blows in the direction of homes. From the books, there are no plans to restore the composting plant. The health hazard remains. The stinky matter rests!

Then, there are several other odd locations for ‘by-heart’ rubbish dumping all over our capital city. Apart from being eye sores, such refuse dumping sites help to entrench a ‘bola’ mentality of indiscriminate dumping of refuse into our psyche.

To bring the state of Accra ‘bola’ to your consciousness, the next time you see a ‘bola’ truck, pause to wonder: Where is its final destination? The answer will shock you. If your preference is to stay peacefully in denial, then never mind! Don’t even read on. Simply wait around until the unavoidable ‘bola’ disaster occurs!

Accra has several things to learn from Tamale. One of them is that Tamale has a well-maintained engineered landfill. An engineered landfill is high on maintaining sanitary environmental standards. It’s safe, well-organized with drainage systems

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