Sanitation Issues In The Korle-Bu Community Demand An Urgent Attention

Korle-Bu in a stricter sense is a teaching hospital as known by most people, however, this cannot be absolutely true as it actually is a whole community on its own. Korle-Bu is a Ga word that literally means the valley of korle lagoon. It was established on 9^th October 1923 under the administration of Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, the then Governor of the Gold Coast. Within the community is the renowned Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Nine health institutions, basic schools, various types of accommodation, and business centers among others.

This article focuses on the myriad of sanitation issues within the Korle-Bu community which demand urgent attention. Although it can be stated emphatically that the peripherals of the health facility is clean and is in a good shape, the other parts of the community remain an eye saw as far as sanitation is concerned regardless of the unrelenting efforts made by authorities within the community to control the problem of poor sanitation. The continuous existence of choked gutters with wastewater from bungalows and eating premises, open defecation, a pocket of bushes, and accumulation of wastes along streets and other places remain a serious public health concern.

This situation presents suitable breeding sites for mosquitoes and houseflies, reptiles and other vectors of medical importance, hideouts for criminals, and also degrades the aesthetic beauty of the environment. Most health students have therefore given the place the name “house of mosquitoes”.

It is therefore not surprising that the issue of malaria is prevalent among the inhabitants of the community as it is depicted in most research conducted by students and others on issue of malaria among inhabitants of the community over the number of years. To prevent this health implication, people adopt some anti-mosquito practices like the use of coils, aerosol sprays, insecticides treated nets, and other control strategies.

The pressing question is; with no behavioral change among the people towards sanitation, how long can the people within the community depend on these control strategies as some control strategies do not give a hundred percent protection against these vectors of poor sanitation?

In the Korle-Bu community where the Teaching Hospital, being the final referral center for the health system in the country is located, one would expect that the community would be a place that has higher standards of sanitation so that inhabitants, as well as visitors who come around for health service, will not suffer the consequences of poor hygiene and sanitation. With the current awareness creation and the rise of various organizations to improve sanitation in the country like the Operation Clean your Frontage exercise, it is, therefore necessary for other stakeholders to come together to give assistance to boost the effort already put in place by the authorities in the Community to uplift the image of the community in terms of sanitation.

• Sanitation is a way of life
• Sanitation is the quality of living
• Sanitation is nourished by knowledge and grows as an obligation
• Sanitation is a shared responsibility!!!!!

Peprah Elijah Kwasi
Environmental Health Officer
Contact: 0594183999
E-mail: [email protected]