Ghana: The Human Settlement That Would Never Attract Social Amenities

Helena Selby

8 June 2011

analysis

Old Fadama, also known as Sodom and Gomorrah, is a suburb of Accra which occupies 3.1 hectares of land along the Odaw River and the Korle lagoon. Initially, the place was being used as a market place for traders from outside the Greater Accra Region, but was later earmarked for the Korle Lagoon Restoration Project.

The project was for the government to build a recreation centre/park for social activities, for which it has already borrowed billions of cedis from its external partners.

Several attempts have been made by successive governments to decongest and evict settlers from of the area, but all to no avail.

Most of the settlers come from different regions of the country, mostly from the northern parts, and do not have relatives in Accra. Out of the over 24 million people in Ghana, the settlers in Old Fadama are about 7,900, but the government has deprived them of most of the social amenities they are supposed to get.

The government has refused to provide them with social amenities, as is done for other communities, but does not refuse to go there to campaign for votes during election periods. Most governments depend on these settlers to make a difference in the number of votes for their parties, but when in power, refuse to make a difference in the lives of these settlers, since their location of settlement is considered illegal, but their votes legal.

The situation of settlers in old Fadama cannot be even compared to refugee camps in the country, as evidently, the lives of people in refugee camps can be considered way better than settlers in Old Fadama.

Health and sanitation in old Fadama

In an in-depth research conducted by the Ghana Federation of Urban Poor, ‘People’s Dialogue on Human Settlement,’ some students of the African University College of Communications and the Journalists for Human Rights, it was realized that the settlers have now come to the conclusion that the government would rather forcibly evict them, though they have nowhere to go than use the nation’s resources on them.

The health and sanitation condition of the slum is way out of control, in the sense that should the government be rated by the situation of Old Fadama in respect of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on malaria and other diseases, the nation will have nothing to write home about. The research disclosed that sanitation and health facilities in the area are really not a priority of the government, as there were no traces of any waste management company operating in there, not even the almighty Zoomlion Waste Management Company.

Rubbish bins were nowhere to be found in the neighbourhoods, despite a request by the Assembly Member to Zoomlion. According to the Assembly Member the management of Zoomlion had refused to operate in the area, with the explanation that they were illegal settlers. Due to this treatment from the government and the waste management companies, some of the residents have no choice than to find their own way of disposing their rubbish.

They either litter the environment or keep garbage in large piles around the community, and kept black plastic bags in a heap near some make shift wooden structures, where people sometimes sleep on. These structures contain garbage and human excrement abandoned by people who cannot afford to pay for the services of the private waste collectors. The attitude of the residents of Old Fadama, when it comes to managing their waste, makes the environment very dirty and stinky, so one of the remedies they use to reduce the level of the unhygienic conditions is to organise communal labour once every two months to clear the rubbish heaps.

On the health aspect, the research further indicated that the Plange Clinic is the only private medical facility in Old Fadama, and is owned by a retired Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital physician in his early seventies. He runs it himself and two with other nurses. The clinic has cobwebs covering the ceiling, dust all over the floor, and the beds dilapidated. The clinic is not well equipped, every piece of equipment and supplies found there are the personal properties of Dr Plange. The clinic has no choice than to refer patients to nearby hospitals, and residents with medical emergencies are sent to either Korle-Bu or the Usher Clinic which sometimes results in the death of the sick person before arrival at these hospitals.

Education

During the survey in some schools in the community, it was observed in the “By His Grace International School” that children in the community are in no way included in the government’s plans of fulfilling the MDG of universal primary education, or even the introduction of the capitation grant and school feeding programme. As the school is located in a slum, the environment is always noisy, and the students sometimes complain of not hearing what the teacher says. The school has no blackboards, the classrooms, which are also used as video centers, are always dark, and the children sit on short benches.

The Queensland Primary School, which enrolls students from nursery to primary five, has its classrooms overcrowded, ventilation poor. It was discovered during the survey that schools in Old Fadama are not in the least supported by the government or Ghana Education Service (GES). Children in oOld Fadama schools do not go by the government standardised curriculum, and are taught by teachers who are not properly trained, most of who have only the Senior High School certificate. According to the National Activity Coordinator of the Ghana Education Service (GES), it is not even aware of the existing schools in Old Fadama.

Water supply

Residents of Old Fadama made it clear that they are denied potable water because the city authorities still maintains that they are illegally squatting on the land. Many of them depend of sachet water, however, in the past five years water supply conditions have improved in the area, all due to the efforts of some of the residents who paid the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) at a high cost to connect pipelines to their various houses.

Unfortunately, residents who could not afford the cost resort to the use of sachet water for cooking and bathing. According to Mr. Stanly Martey, Public Relations Officer of Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL), many people connect water illegally in old Fadama. He said the company connects paying residents with water to dissuade them from making more illegal connections, however AVRL, which is under a management contract with the GWCL operates in line with government orders.

Conclusion

During the research, the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Numo Blafo III, noted that the government was reluctant to improve infrastructure in the community because the area is not for settlement. He said the assembly had even been very lenient with the settlers, and that it should have demolished those structures long ago.

He said that had not been done because the assembly was restricted financially, but added that very soon the eviction will take place. He said the government was aware of the situation of the people in Old Fadama, but had no plans to improve their condition or relocate them.

With this statement of the PRO, it makes it evident that residents of Old Fadama have no hope of a better life in the neighbourhood, but how are they supposed to cope, since they migrated there with the intention of obtaining greener pastures, and at the moment have nowhere else to go.

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