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The challenge
The rate of the congestion
that is created in Accra
by population influx and
drift combined with the rate
of waste mis-management
cause major challenges to city
authorities.
1. The authorities are unable to
cope with the trend.
2. Government after government
looked on mesmerized
and at a loss as to what to do
to turn things around.
3. National Sanitation Days
have been declared by various
governments to motivate
people to assist with waste
clearance and improve on
their attitude in sanitation.
But it remains a mirage.
4. During one of those
sanitation day promotional
activities, a group of people
from a supposed disciplined
group did a lot to clear a
section of a community in
Accra. After hard morning’s
work, they were given
sachets of water to quench
their thirst. By the time
they left the place, they
had littered the place with
the plastics that contained
the water they drank. They
worked to support a good
cause, but it was only a
physical exercise. Their attitudes
had not been touched
for a change.
5. The very vital need to
change attitudes so as not
to litter around still remains
unsolved.
6. The city continues to burst
with people who are still
flocking into it to do their
many functions on a daily
basis.
7. The major challenges of
the Accra Metropolitan
Authority still remain
overpopulation, congestion
and their attendant sanitation
and efficient waste
mismanagement.
The President of Ghana,
His Excellency Nana Addo
Dankwa Akuffo-Addo declared
in Accra on April 23,
2017, two months after being
sworn in that “...by the end of
my term in office, Accra will
be the cleanest city on the
entire African continent”9.
He was as optimistic as those
who came ahead of him. His
tenure has not expired yet, at the mid-point in 2019, yet
Accra remains as it has been
before the declaration. It is still
choked with waste, debris and
very insanitary, even with the
creation of a full Ministry of
Water and Sanitation by the
current government. The first
minister had already been replaced
with another. The challenge
is still on; but this calls
for a more pragmatic approach
in resolving the congestion
and sanitation issues that are
choking Accra.
Here are some pragmatic
and lasting solutions
for attention
Unless in addition to all
that is being done, a drastic
and more pragmatic measure
is taken to make Accra the
cleanest city in Africa, this
dream will continue to be
elusive. The following need attention
to make a headway.
1. All efforts that are put in
place by the Accra Metropolitan
Assembly should
continue, namely:
• Waste management efforts
by the city authorities such as:
i. De-silting the waterways.
ii. Cleaning the gutters of
waste and debris to allow
free flow of water.
iii. Creating new land-fill
sites.
iv. Prosecuting waste management
defaulters, etc.
• Government efforts must
continue such as:
i. Declaration of sanitation
days and months for massive
public participation in cleaning
the city.
ii. Providing the requisite
budget to boost the idea of
the city of Accra becoming
the cleanest city of Africa.
iii. The Health Ministry
continues to promote health
practices to reduce the incidence
of cholera due to filth
in waterways and drainage
into water pipelines.
iv. Continue to motivate
churches, the media and civil
society to promote participation
in sanitation activities.
2. These suggestions need
some pragmatic attention
to bring lasting solution to
the double-headed problem
of congestion in Accra
and its attendant sanitation
challenges.
The Greater Accra Region
which comprises the Accra
Metropolitan Assembly and
its adjoining Municipalities
including Tema needs to put
plans in place to address the
challenges.
Decongestion of accra
i. Accra should be decongested
though a de-population process.
ii. Authorities need to identify
locations outside the innercity,
in the adjoining municipalities
and develop them
into mega shopping malls,
business enclave, and goods
and services centers. These
locations should be along each
of the 5 major roads that lead
into the city of Accra. These
are, from east to west: 1) The
Aflao (Lome)—Accra Road; 2)
The Ho/Jasikan—Accra Road;
3) The Aburi—Accra Road;
4) The Kumasi—Accra Road;
and 5) The Takoradi/Cape
Coast—Accra Road. That the
proposed locations should be
somewhere in the outer-city
along these major roads.
iii. Goods and services that
are provided there should bear
the same price as those in the
inner-city so travellers and
traders who intend to shop
in the inner-city would want
to do their businesses at the
outer mega business centers
and save time and money.
iv. Transportation services
that intend to reach the innercity
must terminate at those
points for people to do their
businesses.
v. Provide and operate swift
buses from the mega shopping
mall and services centers to
the inner-city so those who
would still need to go into the
city could park their vehicles
at these centers; they join the
buses into the city and return
to pick long distance vehicles
or their cars for the outward
journey. This will also reduce
the human and vehicular traffic
in the inner-city.
vi. Provide transportation to
connect all the 5 mega shopping
and services centers so
those who need to get to them
from each location can do so
without having to go into the
inner-city.
vii. Waste generation in
the inner-city will reduce
and thereby contribute to
improve the sanitation situation
in the city.
viii. If all the foregoing is
done, it will drastically reduce
the number of people who
flock into the city to do business
and trade as well as assess
other goods and services there. The city would be decongested
and the population
influx reduced.
Improving the sanitation
situation in accra
In addition to what is happening
already in the city of
Accra, the following would
help to improve the insanitary
condition of Accra.
i. Intensify the education
on attitudinal change of the
mindset of many Ghanaians
to reduce littering around and
manage waste generation.
Religious bodies, schools and
educational institutions, the
media, and civil society bodies
could play major roles in this
education.
ii. Ensure that waste bins and
waste management vehicles
are abundantly available to lift
waste on a daily basis.
iii. Segregate waste material
for recycling at plant sites that
have been built for the purpose.
iv. Segment to city to begin the
process of creating clean communities
with a pilot, sustain it,
and gradually extend the process
to other parts of the city.
v. Aim at turning the filthy
waterways into clear waterways
that will attract tourists.
vi. Have a plan to keep the
city clean at all times.
vii. Ensure that punitive measures
on sanitation offences
are intensified and executed.
Among these are ensuring
that all building have adequate
toilet and waste managing
facilities and outlets to boost
the sanitation of Accra.
viii. Provide sanitation services
at all the mega shopping,
trading, and goods and
services centers in the suburbs
to keep them always clean.
ix. Put a strategic plan in
place for short, mid and
long term implementation,
monitoring and evaluations
to ensure a decongested and
filth-free Accra.
Benefits of decongested
and sanitized accra
When Accra has been
decongested of people and
sanitized as being suggested,
the benefits would be magnanimous
and pleasant.
1. Population growth in Accra
would become predictable
and well controlled to facilitate
effective and efficient
planning of the city.
2. Infrastructure of Accra
would expand and become
attractive to external travellers
and investors.
3. Financial activities would
become well organized, well
monitored and enhanced
to impact positively on the
economy of the nation.
4. The cost-effectiveness of
doing business would be
greatly enriched to benefit
the common person from
the rural community.
5. Waste management would
become efficient.
6. Filth will flee from Accra.
7. Waterways and rivers
entering Accra would
become sanitized and thus
attractive.
8. Tourism would improve.
9. Accra would be counted
among the most clean and
beautiful cities in the world.
Conclusion
Government after government
has tried its best to
overcome the poor waste and
filth situation in Accra without
achieving the results. Year after
year, attempts made have proven
inadequate as the surface
and not the depth of the issues
at stake were tackled yielding
temporary results instead of
opting for lasting solutions.
The foregoing suggestions
may make good reading material,
but the import of this
article is that someone will
rise up and appreciate the
tackling of the points raised to
begin the process of decongesting
Accra. It is an arduous
task. But if the bull is taken by
the horns, and subsequently
Accra becomes de-congested
of its population and devoid of
filth, the dream of it becoming
the most beautiful city in
Africa and one of the most
preferred tourist destinations
in the world can be a reality.
This calls for careful planning,
determination and optimism.
The end
REFERENCES. 1 Ghana, The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
Archived. 2 Google, 2019. 3 worldpopulationreview.com, September 30, 2018. 4
Ghana Statistical Service, Ministries, Accra, Ghana, (Ghanaian Times), January
10, 2019. 5 World Bank Report, 2017. 6 Ghana Demographics Profile, 2018, Accra,
Ghana. 7 https://www.graphic.com.gh, Accra, Ghana, May 11, 2018. 8 myjoyonline.com,
Accra, Ghana, June 5, 2015. 9 https://www.pulse.com.gh , Accra, Ghana, April 23, 2017.
The first thing that comes
to mind when we read the
head line of this document is:
who John Rawls is?
How important is this person
to take into account, what
he says about happiness?
John Rawls was a Harvard
academic who worked in Political
Science, Philosophy and
within Philosophy, in Moral.
He trained in Princeton,
then, went to the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
(MIT) and in 1959 he started
at Harvard. In 1952 he was
named, in Oxford, Fellow
and from 1956 to 1959 he was
co-editor of the Philosophical
Review.
In 1971 it was when he published
his first book: A Theory
of Justice. Since the publication
of his book, no one has
dealt with politics and moral
issues better than John Rawls.
He spent many years making
clarifications of his work.
The work is divided into
three parts:
1. The theory: here explains its
principles.
2. Institutions: explains justice
and the rights and obligations
that apply to people.
3. The ends: here he proposes
the relationship between justice and good.
About a work so worked and
so commented something
special must have on the
happiness.
The first thing that Rawls
does to define the happiness
is to explain who is the
one that is going to be happy?
The one that is going to be
happy is the human being,
that’s why he tells us:
“Here I adopt Royce’s idea
that a person can be considered
as a human life, lived according
to a project’”. (Rawls,
1917, p. 370)
According Rawls, the human
being concretes his happiness
through a project; Life
itself is a project.
The question would be: what
project does the human being
have to have in order to happiness
come as a result?
Following to Rawls: “A project,
then, consists of subprojects
conveniently arranged in
a hierarchy, and the general
features of the project allow
more permanent objectives
and interests to complement
each other". (Rawls, 1917, p. 373)
He explains that this project
is made up of interests: our
interests.
Our interests must have a
characteristic so that they are
interests that make us happy
but also that don’t take away
happiness from others that is
why Rawls speaks of rationality
in structuring our life
project to be happy.
According to Rawls:
“Now, a feature of a rational
project is that, in doing so, the
individual doesn’t change his
choice or wish to have done
something different in its
place”. (Rawls, 1917, p. 382)
Still regarding the rationality
where there must be
deliberation according Rawls:
“Anyway, a person behaves
irrationally when his lack of
willingness to think what is the
best (or the most satisfactory)
that he can do leads him to
mistakes that, if he stopped to
consider it, he would recognize
that, if he had thought about it
he could have prevented them”.
(Rawls, 1917, p. 379)
He continues explaining
how to make this life project
rationally.
“The formal rule is that we
can deliberate until such time
as the probable benefits of improving
our project are worth
the time and effort of reflection”.
(Rawls, 1917, p. 379)
Our project is our life analyzed
from what we want to do
and to be.
It means to elaborate a way
of life in which we know what
we want to do and not live to
what the circumstances allow
us, that is why we have to see
ourselves in time.
“The purpose of the deliberation
is to find the project that
best organizes our activities,
influences the formation of
our subsequent desires, so that
our purposes and interests
can be combined fruitfully in
a single scheme of behavior”.
(Rawls, 1917, p. 372)
The project will indicate the
relevant aspects of life that
will be built with daily living.
“The structure of a project
not only reflects the need
for specific information, but
also highlights a hierarchy of
desires that goes, in a similar
way, from the most general to
the least general”. (Rawls, 1917,
p. 372)
We can infer that each person
must make their life project
to be happy, and for each other,
happiness will be different
goals, desires and paths.
“As the projects that are
rational vary from one person
to another, according to their
faculties and circumstances,
etc., different individuals find
their happiness in doing different
things.” (Rawls, 1917, p. 371)
Our project to be happy will
give us the path to follow, but
that path throughout life, will
have revisions and adjustment
when things start to
show, that something is happening
that we don’t reach
the proposed goal.
“Indeed, with certain exceptions
(§ 83), we can think that
a person is happy when he
is on the way to a successful
(more or less) realization of
a rational life project drawn
up in (more or less) favorable
conditions, and if that
person reasonably trusts that
his project can be carried out.
Someone is happy when their
projects develop well, when
their most important aspirations
are made, and when they
feel confident that their good
fortune will be lasting”. (Rawls,
1917, p. 371)
We also have to think that
we will have facts that are part
of the development of society
and that we have to make
revisions and adjustments. We
also have to be objective doing
our life project to be happy,
that things don’t happen with
the precision of a physical or
mathematical law. That is why
Rawls mentions: fortunate
realization.
Nowadays our projects to be
happy have to be revised in the
same way that society changes,
our country or the world society.
We also have to make good
deliberations given the many
populist governments that exist
and are being formed.
The main goals of our life
project to be happy have to be
very clear and we not feel bad
because we have to make this
or the other adjustment: we live
in a globalized world. This aspect
exerts a constant pressure.
Go ahead to work with the
project of life to be happy.
You didn’t know that you
have a life project to be happy.
Now you know it.
Choose the elements to
build your life project to be
happy so that you can be
happy in this world that has
its wonderful things but at the
same time its difficulties.
Build your life project
to be happy and you
will be happy!
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Rawls, J. Teoría de la Justicia. Retrieved from:
https://etikhe.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/john_rawls_-_teoria_de_
la_justicia.pdf | Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. The Presiden!
and Fellows of Harvard College. The Belknap Press © 1971. ISBN
674-88014-5.
Do you look forward to studying?
Do you enjoy studying?
The best way to study is to enjoy it.
So how do you keep yourself motivated
to enjoy studying?
Here are 6 ideas:
1 Keep in mind why you study. Are
you developing a new theory?
Are you working toward a better job?
Think about how your life will be better
with your education.
2 Place something in the location
where you study that will remind
you of your goals. You can write a
note on the wall or put a picture of
your family.
3 Place inspirational quotes around
the area where you study.
4 Close your eyes before you study
and visualize the reading that you
will do and the assignment that you
will prepare. Then visualize yourself
reaching your goals. Then open your
eyes and start studying.
5 Write essays about topics that are
the most interesting to you.
6 Write essays about topics that
are the most important for your
future job.
These are some ideas to help you
stay motivated and focused on your
studies.
Learn to love and appreciate
what you are learning.