Elsewhere in this issue of the Ghanaian Times, we have published an investigative piece of the breakdown of the Tema Central sewerage system that has become a worry to the residents.
Apart from the health hazards that it poses, the residents also have to live with a spillage with its accompanying stench.
Our correspondent, Godfred Blay Gibbah, who visited the area reports that the breakdown has caused some residential areas to be inundated with the spillage liquid waste due to the blockage in the disintegrated and aged asbestos pipes,
Other portions of the network, he said, are choked with foreign materials such as underwears, used condoms, baby diapers, sanitary pads and pieces of nets used as sponges which have been accidentally or otherwise flushed into the system.
According to him, the situation is posing a health threat to the public as some residents have been complaining of headaches, fatigue, sinus infections, bronchitis, and pneumonia, loss of appetite, poor memory and dizziness allegedly due to long exposure to sewer gas.
The spillage, he said, had led to a situation where untreated liquid waste is even channelled into the sea near the Sega Lagoon with dire consequences for fish, marine organisms and aquatic plants because the decaying organic matter used up most of the oxygen in the water body.
The report further states that, although the problem affected all communities on the network, communities two, one, four and five seemed to be the most affected.
Information available indicate that the central sewerage system was built in the late 1950s to cater for a population of between 20,000 to 40,000 but the sewer network has been overstretched to carry the liquid waste of the current population of over 360,000.
In addition many extensions to the existing houses along with other structures some of which have been built on sewer lines have worsened the situation.
This has left city authorities to scratch their heads in search of solutions as they struggle to cope with the situation.
Besides pondering over how to resolve the huge challenge, the city authorities are also confronted with raising enough funds to tackle the problem which has persisted for the past 18 years.
Thankfully, however, there appears to be light at the end of the unnel. The Tema Metropolitan Assembly appears to have struck a €76 million deal with Sewerage System Ghana Limited to undertake rehabilitation and expansion of the Tema Central sewerage system.
This is indeed welcome news and we look forward to the start of the project which has been unduly delayed.
We pray that the government would support the two institutions to complete the rehabilitation work on schedule in order to bring relief to the residents of Tema.
We also hope that the Tema Metropolitan Assembly and Sewerage System Ghana Limited would be fully committed to the project and do whatever they can to solve the age-old problem in the area once and for all.
Besides, we urge the residents as well as squatters who have built on unauthorised places to cooperate with the city authorities by voluntarily quitting those places to give way for smooth rehabilitation work on the sewerage systems.
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