Shama Apor beach in the Western Region which until now was engulfed in human excreta due to incessant open defecation and indiscriminate disposal of waste largely rubber has been cleaned by Ecozoil, a Ghanaian waste management firm.
The beautiful wide sandy Shama Apor beach which under normal circumstances could have been a destination for the relaxation of holidaymakers and promote local tourism has for years been abandoned as a result of the unending open defecation and indiscriminate waste disposal.
Speaking to Citi News on the rationale for the clean-up, the General Manager of Ecozoil, Abita Odame Nyante said her outfit embarked on the clean-up at the coast to help promote hygiene and local tourism.
“Our mandate is to ensure that our waterfronts, thus the beaches, the sea as well as the Volta lake are kept clean… With the coastal areas, we have come on board ourselves to undertake this clean-up exercise, and we have also engaged people from the communities that we’ve given them the PPEs and some basic training on how to clean. We’ve also provided receptacles for them to be able to dump the waste generated into them. Beyond this, we are calling on collaboration from the government, NGOs, private beaches, and community opinion leaders to come on board to support us to collaborate with us to keep the beaches clean.”
”We believe that when the beach is clean, it doesn’t just go for the community, but it also goes for Ghana as a whole. There is tourism potential with these beaches if we’re able to harness it. We realize that the many diseases that the people along the coast are being affected will reduce, thus typhoid and cholera due to some of these things”, she said.
Abita Odame Nyante highlighted the categories of waste they had to deal with, however challenged residents of Shama Apor beach and also called nonother stakeholders to support these clean-ups.
“When we got here, we saw that it is from this same water some are winning and others are fishing. Meanwhile, we observed there are seaweeds and waste that are due to anthropogenic effects, meaning that they are caused by we humans. In fact, you see a lot of plastic waste, mineral bottles, water bottles, and sachet rubbers, all being domestic waste on the beach which shouldn’t be so.”
” On top of it you will find human excreta here, and you will still see people lining up at the beaches just easing themselves and that is not the best for our beaches. Our objective is just to clean up the mess we have come to see today at the beach. We are not just cleaning but also sensitization the community and other stakeholders to help sustain this“, she added.
Shama being a coastal community, the business of fishing has been the mainstay of many in the town.
Although many of the women in the communities also get their livelihood from selling the catch by fishermen, the women just like the fishermen do their business in filth caused by indiscriminate disposal of waste mainly rubber as well as human excreta for lack of toilet and waste bins.
While commending Ecozoil for helping to clean up the beach, Cecilia Nana Adwoa Akroma, a resident of Shama Apor called for sustainable measures.
“The concern with open defecation here is that authorities in the community have failed to rehabilitate our old toilet along the beach for us to easily attend to nature’s call. As old as I’m, I fell down here when I was coming to nature’s call here at the beach. Why should it be so?”
”Both women and men have to line up here just to ease themselves at the beach. What we need the most here is a toilet, if they want this community to develop. We thank Ecozoil for the clean-up but we need the sanitary facilities including waste bins at the beach to sustain the sanity Ecozoil has brought”, said Cecilia Nana Adwoa Akroma, a fisher trader and resident of Shama Apor.