The Minatory Issue Of Stray Animals On UDS Navrongo Campus But Why Is Management Silent About It?

University for Development studies as part of its mandate is to facilitate development in the North and the country as a whole but how do we achieve this without developing internally the University itself?

Among its campuses, Navrongo campus is one of the four and popularly known for its intensive threat of the scorching sun which is not my concern for now.

From observation and through experience, most students here on Navrongo campus upon arrival into the campus do not see it to meet their expectations as a University because of how the environment looks. But as they always say, “don’t mind the environment, but consider what you are here to derive”. Also considering the fact that the standard of decorum is usually not necessary after you have acquired a certificate from a university. Though the campus is also famous for its distinct programs offered, excellent academic performances, student activism among others, the environment seems not friendly for normal teaching and learning especially during the periods of February to the ending part of April.

My concern in this write up is based on the fact that we stay with livestock on campus here which has bothered me for a while but I have been wondering whether the management is unwitting of it or they are waiting for something to happen before they act. Their negligence on this issue has raised a lot of eye brows.

As students and for the betterment of our stay on campus, the environment should be made conducive not talking of the heat we experience but with respect to serenity and cleanliness which will go a long way into improving the standard of the students and the campus at large.

The welfare of the students in a University should be the core mandate of the management since there would be no University without students. The current status of Navrongo campus with respect to sanitation is in an appalling state which baffles me a lot. Come to look at the aggravated rate at which cattle and other animals are allowed to roam freely on campus. My question now is, are the animals owned by the school or own by some individuals? And if owned by the school, why not adopt the intensive rearing system as we have been taught?

There are a lot of sectors in which these free roaming animals interfere with the activities of teaching and learning but I will like to emphasize on their contributions in accidents and the medical effects this has on Us.

To begin with the issues of health, these animals contribute a lot in respect to compromising our health. Taking into consideration disease outbreaks such as mastitis, helminthiasis, skin diseases, cholera etc. that these animals are likely to cause.

These animals tend to zoonotically transmit diseases to human. From my basic parasitology, their fecal matter contains pathogens that are harmful to human. I have heard of the incidence of typhoid fever on campus which is caused by consuming contaminated food or water. The contaminated food or water should contain a bacterium called Salmonella typhi which can be carried in the excreta of these animals.

Also, what they eat during this stray movement is not monitored and they take in products in waste bins which might contain substances with deposits of heavy metals and chemicals. These can also be passed to human through meat and dairy products.

However, the contribution of these stray animals to accidents is also escalating at an alarming rate. The extensive method of animal rearing is outmoded especially when the human population is magnificently increasing and urbanization is on the rise. These stray animals tend to impede movement of automobiles on campus. They also destroy some parts by leaning on and scratching glass wares of these machines.

Not forgetting of how they disrupt teaching and learning process by the boisterous noise they produce during lecture periods. This noise is so irritating and is such that lecturers have to sometimes pause and wait for a volunteer to deter away these animals before they can continue. This problem is common and can be testified by many lecturers and students.

They also tend to pull down dust bins in their efforts of finding food and through this process, a lot of dust bins have been destroyed. Not also forgetting of the uncontrolled release of excrete by these animals which make the environment filthy and thus exposes Us to a lot of harm. All that I have discussed boils down to the illegal paths created by unscrupulous elements within the community who creates channels through the school fence leaving the campus without a dependable and reliable fence.

This problem of stray animals when left unchecked can lead to uncontrollable epidemics of diverse diseases and so the need to be attended to.

Conclusively, I will like to recommend that management should make efforts by placing measures that will prevent these animals from coming near to lecture halls by adopting the intensive method of rearing animals and by fine owners of these animals who will allow their animals to come into the campus to cause destructions by an amount of GHȻ100. And also, to look into providing an efficient fencing system for the campus.

All I have stated in this write up is not to ossify the insofar of the situation but to mollify and plead with management to make efforts in curbing this situation. I plead on behalf of the student body for management to come to our aid by audi alteram partem and have a second look of our proffered demands. I stand to be edified since I am not being rancorous but just a concerned hypochondriac.

Writer: Issah Abdul-Hanan Girasu
UDS, Navrongo Campus
Department of Applied Biology
[email protected]