Anybody who drives or walks the streets of Accra, our capital, can’t deny the shameful self-inflicted filth piled up on nearly each nook.
As smelly filth will get thrown up by the rains from uncovered drains, the ugly nature of our acts of lawlessness in the best way we deal with the setting comes out as soon as once more to hit us onerous.
It’s painful that 12 months after 12 months, the cash spent on what we imagine might be lasting options has not yielded the wanted options. Equally, the extreme schooling on attitudinal modifications and the various reminders from pulpits that cleanliness is subsequent to godliness have all yielded little impression.
Admittedly, some people and acutely aware communities do attempt to distil their drains however the harm they find yourself creating by leaving the dug-out filth on the shoulders of the roads provides salt to our accidents.
More often than not, the cleared filth faraway from the gutters is left unattended for weeks till the following rain drags them again into those self same drains. So actually, there has not been any passable answer to clearing the filth from our communities.
Magic wand
Nearly all of the magic wands employed up to now to remove the filth from our streets have failed us. There’s something nevertheless that I got here throughout this previous week which I assumed may match for us if it might be institutionalised.
In attempting to dodge site visitors final Tuesday to a vacation spot within the Ridge space, I drove previous what I assumed might be a magic wand and will current us with a daily answer to conserving clear our communities – using fewer offending prisoners as one might discuss with them.
I noticed a lot of younger prisoners of their uniforms below supervision by a uniformed jail officer clearing weeds and garbage from an enclave close to the Kofi Annan ICT Centre at Ridge.
I nearly gave a thumbs as much as the officer pondering he and his superiors have been doing one thing very needful and helpful to the group. By the point I returned from my perform, utilizing the identical route, the realm was glowing clear.
I discovered it a intelligent thought to place to group use these prisoners assessed as much less threatening and who in any other case would have been losing away in a sweaty packed jail cell on a vivid sunny day. May we not institutionalise this type of “cleansing” engagement, at the least, for our prime areas and ceremonial roads and streets?
Common schedules
If one just isn’t breaching any regulation or protocols, would it not be an excessive amount of to ask the Ministry of Inside or whoever is accountable to contemplate common schedules for prisons across the nation to place their “much less harmful” inmates to group work? One can start to make use of them for tidying up our streets and communities, one thing we’d like dearly whereas they too get the chance to be on the market, having fun with wanted contemporary air and exercising their our bodies.
Teaming up with the Ministry of Native Authorities or the Assemblies, tools and different instruments wanted for this sort of group work, tidying up frequent grounds regularly might simply be agreed on.
And why not? For years that the Assemblies taxed us and picked up our property charges and till just lately, with the baton handed on to the Ghana Income Authority (GRA), among the income accrued from property charges might be ploughed again right here. Little doubt any such assist to the Prisons Service could be a welcome gesture.
It could even be the start of an adhoc or everlasting apart revenue technology or feeding assist to the prisoners.
One is certain this might be performed. I’ve witnessed a gaggle of inmates clearing bushes alongside the bypass that hyperlinks the Burma Camp underpass to East Airport. I’ve additionally encountered a gaggle of them clearing weeds and different garbage on the Liberation Street, particularly within the island in entrance of the Jubilee Home.
Little doubt the identical has occurred or is going on in different components of the town. If that’s the case, then one can push for a particular case to be thought of for streets, neighbourhoods and communities the place the filth has engulfed communities and dropped at query, the fantastic thing about our capital.
It’s certainly time for improvements that might transfer us ahead. The sanitation challenge which continues to depart us dumbfounded wants each citizen’s concepts and solutions. We can’t afford to look passively on to a important challenge similar to a clear setting.
It speaks tons a couple of folks; it impinges on a wholesome society and takes lots away from beautification and decency. Allow us to strive using jail inmates in our seek for tidying up the environment, as long as it’s lawful.