APRIL 25

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Inside APRIL 25, 2019.qxp_Layout 1 4/25/19 3:27 PM Page 11 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH Opinion DAILY HERITAGE THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 Water is life, but faces domestic violence BY ANIMA JACQUELINE, STUDENT, GIJ IPERFECTLY remember the ordeal I went through waiting for hours before, to my surprise, I could collect unclean brownish water, whose impurities had to settle down to make it a little attractive for any domestic activities like cooking, drinking or bathing. This was my experience in my hometown for some weeks. It was like a vacation on the Sahara Desert, where water is very scarce and so with the little available, one would have to manage to be able to survive for the rest of your life time. I am very certain that you might have gone through a similar situation which made you to realize that indeed ' Water is life'. In sub-Saharan Africa, one of the the numerous resources we boast of is water unlike places such as Yemen, Libya, Jordan, and Djibouti. But as to whether we really appreciate it is the headache of the government and some sanitation organizations. Nature, in its own wisdom, has blessed us with streams, lakes, •A water scene rivers, the seas and other water bodies to serve as home for aquatic beings, and for farming, domestic activities such as drinking, washing, and cooking, and other uses. Today, it is so sad that water, with its numerous benefits, is undergoing unfair hard punches from humans who need it most to survive. According to Mr. Ben Ampomah, Executive Secretary of Water Resources, "about 60% of Ghana's water bodies are polluted". (source :GNA) Iceland's Blue Lagoon, for instance, is one of the beautiful lagoons and its beauty attracts more tourists and serves as a source of income for the country. However, the Korle Lagoon in Accra, on the other hand, has lost its beauty to becoming the principal receptacle into which all major drainage channels in the city empty their wastes and it, in turn, empties everything into the sea. Large amounts of untreated industrial waste emptied into the drains have led to severe pollution of the lagoon and disrupted its natural ecology. As the government spends huge sums of money to dredge the river to get rid of its silt and loads of garbage from it, residents are also in full force throwing all manner of waste materials into the Odaw river, thus cutting back all effort put in place to clear its bruises. Many of our beautiful rivers are ironically polluted by individuals who live near and depend on them as major sources of drinking water. Take, for example, the pollution from galamsey. Our seas too have consumed a lot of plastic waste and faecal matter, which is killing our fishes. Fishermen now go to the sea and return home with nets full of plastics instead of fish and this is ripping apart tourism in Ghana in a way and soon, the beaches would not be an attractive place anymore. A Sustainable Development Goal is clear that there should be water for all by 2030, which means "leaving no one behind ". If so, why don't you and I join forces to save what we have since other people in other parts of the world are struggling to have water. The writer is a level 300 student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism Can we win the sanitation war at Labadi? BY EMMANUEL ASARE, STUDENT, GIJ ON A visit to any city in Ghana today one would see heaps of garbage everywhere, including streams and gutters. The problem of solid waste management is a direct result of challenges, including the rapidly growing urban population, few waste treatment options in Ghana, irregular collection of solid waste, negative habits and apathy of the general public towards the environment. The rate at which solid waste is growing on our streets and in drainage is so menacing that it is difficult to tell when “Accra is going to be the cleanest city in Africa” as declared by the Akufo- Addo-led administration since it assumed power after the 2016 general elections would be achieved. Speaking at a recent sanitation launch, Sanitation Education Everywhere, by Walcourt Green, a non-governmental organization which aims at promoting sanitation, at the International Press Centre, Patrick Buamah, the Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, said, “Most recent data indicates that only 15% of Ghanaians have access to improved sanitation whilst about 19% defaecate in the open”, a situation which is not encouraging. He gave the assurance that, “In as much as we feel so bad about our poor sanitation situation, we hope in the new commitments that we have made in the Global Development Agenda -- the Sustainable Development Goal 6 -- of ensuring access to improved sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030.” For some decades now, at Labadi in the LA Dadekotopon Constituency, there have not been rubbish-collecting centres at vantage points, where the residents dump their solid wastes. Until the waste collectors who do house-tohouse with sacks and sometimes carts to collect the waste come around, refuse would be heaped in plastic bags and containers in various corners in the households, attracting flies and other insects to feed on. When this persists, diseases related to poor sanitation such as malaria, diarrhoea, intestinal worms and cholera are reported at the local hospital. Solid wastes are seen in every • A poor sanitaation area nook and cranny of this part of the city. The Labadi beach is an eyesore as the first scene to welcome you there is cluster of solid wastes, wastes which were not generated by nature but by the the residents of the town. As a result of dumping of solid wastes in drains and intentional littering around, the wastes found their way into the sea, which all drains are linked to, thus making the place very unhealthy to patronize. The residents admitted that indiscriminate dumping of waste has to do with bad habit this must change. They said, “We need to change our attitudes towards sanitation in Labadi and its environs. Some people in the community openly defaecate in the drains and the sea in the evenings. Dumping of refuse and other solid waste materials in the drains during rainy periods must be stopped.” They also opined that, “Since there is no provision of dustbins by the District Assembly and a place where we can go and dump solid wastes, residents have no choice but to throw them in the sea.” However, Mr. John Alexis Pwamang, Acting Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, has expressed concern that, “Majority of the populace believe that waste management is a sole responsibility of the government. It is, however, stated in Article 41(k) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana that it is the duty of every citizen to protect and safeguard the environment.” The writer is a level 300 student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism
Inside APRIL 25, 2019.qxp_Layout 1 4/24/19 8:43 PM Page 13 DAILY HERITAGE THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 Is Nyantakyi’s ‘ghost’ haunting Dan Kweku Yeboah? BY MICHAEL NSIAH OTCHERE • Dan Kwaku Yeboah, PRO NC • Anas Aremeyaw Anas MANY FOOT- BALL-LOV- ING fans on September 13, 2018 came to the realization that Ghana football was expected to go through reforms to pave the way for excitement, joy and ecstasy that once characterized our game. The Normalization Committee (NC), since its inception late last year, have had their own issues with how to deal with the public and I believe my elder brother and colleague Dan Kwaku Yeboah was hired to bridge that gap. How events have unfolded over the period is there for the public to judge because I believe that if someone wants to progress in life or embark on whatever he or she deems fit, he or she will always need to stay focused by discarding past events which will not bring any positive results that will help to achieve success. When my brother Dan Kweku Yeboah was handed the PRO job, I said to myself “now cometh the hour for the astute sports journalist to showcase what he’s got all these years”. I wouldn’t want to side with what many people had said just because they believed he was a staunch critic of the previous administration. Fast-forward, the level of inconsistency in that department headed by Kweku Yeboah ever since the Normalization Committee came into force clearly beats my imagination. My little knowledge about Public Relations (PR) says you work ethically even when all the media wants is headlines because PR fails when there is no integrity. Ironically, considering how much of our work involves in maintaining and improving reputations, Public Relations doesn’t always have the best representative when it comes to ethics. Does that mean my good brother fall in that category? I should think so, because maybe he is being measured by the same standards he set for the previous administration. On Wednesday, April 17, 2019, Power Distribution Service (PDS) had come visiting the previous night so my phone and laptop batteries had all run down. I went to the office around 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday only to find out on social media after charging my phones and laptop that my elder brother was trending. Apparently he was the guest on Songo’s ‘Fire for Fire’ show and had tagged those criticizing and asking the NC to stick to their core mandate and speed up activities as those who lost their ‘chop money’ due to the collapse of the Nyantakyi-led administration. I kept asking myself “so [was it the reason why] when the Nyantakyi administration was in power, Kweku Yeboah was always criticizing and chastising them even when they had made some good scores in some areas of their administration?” So will one also be fair to conclude that Kweku Yeboah was not getting his “chop money” from the Nyantakyi administration or he was also getting his “chop money” from somewhere to always see everything wrong with the Nyantakyi-led administration? Well, that won’t be at my call since the public will decide for themselves. “They are creating an impression that the mandate of the Normalization Committee has been extended because they failed to deliver. “If you check the record, there is nowhere in the world that Normalization Committee has executed their mandate within the first six month. “The Normalization in Uruguay went beyond six months, same for Zimbabwe; Cameroun had two years. You have used 13 years to destroy it, how do you expect us to use six months to fix the mess created; are we magicians? With these comments attributed to my big brother, I clearly felt that Nyantakyi’s “ghost” is still haunting my colleague. Whether fans, followers or even haters of Nyantakyi like it • Kwasi Nyantakyi, a former GFA boss or not, the former GFA president is history and a goner. He will never come back to active football activities, so Kweku Yeboah should better wake up from his sleep. I believe the NC led by Dr Kofi Amoah gave him the nod to speak for them because they might have seen something good in him. So if you get the chance to educate Ghanaians on what you intend to do to normalize football, Nyantakyi is history so stay focused and work to deliver on your mandate, my brother. As the Normalization Committee once said, they would not allow the inherent greatness of our football to die on the “altar of selfishness, greed and braggadocio.” So do many and all soccer-loving fans want to see clear-cut interventions, and submissions from you that will in no time save our once loved sports, which is football? Inasmuch as the previous administration led by Nyantakyi had several issues, the 13 years my brother is claiming nothing good came out of, Ghana at least recorded some positives which I wouldn’t like to go into because as I said we should rather be using our energies and strength to look into the future with lots of positives, which starts with you and all of us in the industry. “The very foundation of Ghana football will collapse in a heap, to be rebuilt by the concerned sports journalists and the honest football people who will remain standing.” This was the famous quote “The Normalization in Uruguay went beyond six months, same for Zimbabwe; Cameroun had two years. You have used 13 years to destroy it, how do you expect us to use six months to fix the mess created; are we magicians? from investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas prior to the premiering of the Number 12 Expose. But as things stand now, I am tempted to believe that the socalled concerned sports journalist and the once honest ones who were touted to remain standing have all fallen. Let me borrow this famous quote from Abraham Lincoln which says “what kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.” Maybe the greatest mistake the NC made was to have appointed my good brother as its spokesperson but my advice to Kweku Yeboah is that some of your utterances in the past might have cost you some discomfort in your role as the GFA’s Spokesperson but as once said by Warren Buffet, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about it, you will do things differently.” Both past and present sports journalists in the country have a core mandate to make our industry thrive again. Because once again as said by the great Malcom X, “the media is the most powerful entity on Earth.” “They have the power to make the innocent guilty and make the guilty innocent and that’s power but we must use it positively to benefit mankind.” God save our motherland Ghana and make the once noble and respected sports journalism job great again. The writer is a sports journalist at Starr FM, a unit of the EIB Network
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APRIL 25

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