Residents around a ground gutter that runs right through the community are at their wit's end as the stench and general unsanitary conditions in the area continue to choke them, fearing that an epidemic of large proportions could strike the area sooner than later.
The gutter has been engulfed in filth, and the stench it leaves continues to expose residents to various health implications.
A tour around some parts of the community revealed Ghana has failed in her quest to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) six, which preaches about clean water and sanitation.
The people expressed concern over the deplorable state of the gutter which is making their living condition unbearable as it has created an environmental unfriendliness.
The worried residents who spoke to GhanaWeb described the problem as a health time bomb particularly during the rains as it emits foul, pungent smell.
Forced to live with the situation for the past several years, the situation is getting worse daily and there is the need to whimper out for assistance.
Divisional chief of the Plau Traditional Area, Nene Tetteh Djabah Agblezee IV in an interview with GhanaWeb expressed regret at the situation, particularly with the gutter running right behind his palace.
“The gutter that runs right behind the palace is very bad and unhygienic for the community members,” said the chief.
“We all know cholera is caused by dirt and as it stands now, many children are falling sick due to this gutter and the flies that hover around it make their way into our houses and the stench is also very horrible. That gutter stinks a lot especially during the rains and this is a problem to us.”
He however appealed to the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly and other prominent Plau indigenes to put resources and ideas together to construct a befitting drainage in the area to solve the insanitary conditions in the area.
He also complained about the absence of a proper toilet facility for the people who continue to use a dilapidated facility.
A worried resident in the community, Daniel Tetteh, said his household now lives with the pungent smell daily as the gutter passed through his house, “you can imagine our state of affairs,” he lamented.
Another whose house is located along the gutter also shared her views with this Correspondent. According to Mamle Teiko, the stench from the gutter poses a health hazard to residents.
“This as you can see yourself is an eyesore. Flies hover around this place all the time as a result of this situation, no matter how much we clean it, the foul smell persists. The only solution is a gutter must be constructed through here,” she said.
Deplorable toilet facility
The residents also complained about the state of the old and only community toilet available for their use which they say is in a state of disrepair.
A new facility put up to replace the dilapidated 12-seater toilet has also broken down shortly after is opening, forcing residents to abandon it and to continue to resort to the use of the old facility.
Assemblyman for Gberkomanya Electoral Area, Honourable Borti Andrews Owusu explained in an interview that though the gutter was awarded as part of construction works on the Okornya town roads, the contactor could not complete works and work has since stalled on the project.
“The contractor who was working on this Okornya road, they gave the contract to him, unfortunately, we didn't see him again after the change of government. But for that problem the drainage should have been completed by now,” he said.
Describing the state of the new toilet facility, he said the facility built to replace the dilapidated facility could not be used due to various structural defects.
According to him, “there are a whole lot of cracks in the building [and] it must be demolished if it must be used and a new one put up in its place.
Yilo Krobo Municipal Engineer, Ing Prosper Tudagbe Obour when reached for his response said land issues with individual owners hampered efforts by the municipal Assembly to construct drainages in the area.
According to him, landlords were reluctant to release their lands for purposes of drainages and other construction works in the area.
“We have a drainage problem and the problem we are having is we don’t have stool lands [but] individual lands so sometimes if we want to do the things, they’ll say don’t touch my land…so those are the problems but we’re managing it,” he told GhanaWeb.
He however assured that his outfit would access the drainage and state of the places of convenience in the area in order to address the problems.
The deplorable toilet facility