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Climate & Ocean Action News SOA Ghana Fellows

Bless Aglago writes: The plastic menace in Ghana and the journey forward

Plastic pollution has become one of the biggest environmental hazards facing many countries today and Ghana’s ocean ecosystem has not been spared of its wrath.

Ghana alone generates about 1.1 million tone of plastic waste per year, of which only 5% recycled according to the World Economic Forum.

Is there not any action plan by government, non-governmental and individual to reduce the plastic waste pollution? What are the causes, possible preventions and its health complication? Did you know the enormous of mass plastic in the ocean made it to be called the 7th continent, meaning in years to come, there will be more plastic than fishes in the sea.

Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic waste in our society or community that has to do with cigarette, bottle cups, polythene bags etc.  These accumulation affect health, wildlife habitat, and humans. The sea, beaches, rivers and land of our environment are filled with plastic waste and that pave way for my story

Plastic pollution has become common in our society today especially those that live around the coastal areas such Nungua, Anloga, keta and among many others. But is it only the people living in that area that get the environment polluted by plastics and others? What is our ocean turning into? Marine pollution everywhere. What has the EPA done so far about it because in years to come there will be water scarcity due to non-stop pollution.

As a result of improper waste disposal, plastic waste from the various communities ends up in our water bodies which at the ends affect our health and the lives of fishes. The United Nations Environment Program estimate that about 15 trillion particles of micro plastic are existing in the ocean whilst 12.7 million tons of plastic waste are washed into the ocean yearly which means marine species are at danger of indigestion, suffocation and others. Thus seabirds and turtles are at higher risk always (Mambra 2020, Reddy 2018).

    Causes

Negligence; It is estimated that 80% of marine or sea litter and waste comes from land. Meaning humans are responsible for this plastic waste due to improper recycling of household waste which ends up in the ocean by wind and rain.

Secondly, natural disaster; this has to do with floods that are caused by choked gutters and improper disposable of waste that are swept into the ocean.

Fishing nets; since towns located around the coastal areas does nothing than commercial fishing it has become necessity for most part of the world to depend on fish to get the right amount of diet for their living. But at the end of the day, this commercial has contributed to plastic pollution in the ocean such that the net used in fishing is made of plastic and affect the life of marine fishes or animals

Effects

Health of human; the seafood that are eaten now and then are contaminated by plastics that end up in the ocean. According to scientists, micro plastic of 114 are found within the species of marine where 1/3 of these foods ends on the plates of human before consuming. And unfortunately, some people do not take their time in preparing this foods before consumed into our body especially the food vendors which end up affecting our health.

According to WHO in 2018 research conducted, 90% of micro plastics are found in bottle water in regards to the fact some of these plastics are picked from seashores and recycled into re-usable ones without any treatment hence water poured into this bottles are contaminated at the end of the day.

wildlife; plastics that finds their way into the ocean affect the habitat of fishes and wildlife in the ocean, sometimes, this marine animals get trapped in the various fishing net which affect their insecurity of living. due to many plastic particles that find their way into the ocean, it is unsafe for these wildlife to continue living at one place hence they keep moving from place to the other which at the end of the day, affect fishing practices.

lastly, it makes our beaches and seashore dirty; since the sea does not anything into itself, any plastic that enters the oceans find their way out at the shores that makes the surrounding unclean and affect the health those living around.

Possible measures or solution

Education; there is there need for more education to be done in order to educate people on how to handle plastic waste and proper disposal. Restaurants can also be educated concerning how their packaging etc. single use can help reduce the impact of plastic pollution in Ghana especially the capital city.

Also government policies; the policies that brought out by government should favor the least person in the society. The implementation and enforcing of country-wide policy. Either to ban or re-use policy such as pure water plastics bags, shopping bags and others.

Increased in recycling; plastics should be recycled properly without leaving any. Everything plastic should be recycled wit available machines. There can be alternative technology introduction that can help in recycling.

Producer responsibility; this has to do with producers being accountable for plastic waste on our environment. There should be regulation of re-usage and compulsory take back programs.

 Article by Bless Aglago | 2021 SOA Ghana Fellow

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Climate & Ocean Action Climate Change Home News SOA Ghana Fellows

Charles Faseyi writes: How pollution threatens the livelihoods of coastal communities in Ghana

Pollution is the introduction of harmful substances into the environment. These substances have adverse effects on the environment and humans who live within the environment. The main sources of pollution in Ghana are improper waste disposal, sewage disposals, open defecation and gold mining especially the menace known as galamsey (illegal gold mining).

The coastal area of Ghana is home to several ecosystems which provide several services to the people living in the area. These ecosystems include the mangrove ecosystem, lagoons, estuaries, beaches, and the sea. Coastal communities depend on the services which could be provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural from these ecosystems. The benefits from these ecosystems form the livelihoods of these coastal communities. Livelihood as described by Wikipedia is “a means of securing the basic necessities of life”. These activities encompass the benefits of the environment to the coastal communities and these could be threatened and severely impacted when the environment is no more conducive or healthy due to pollution.

Environmental pollution is a major threat to the sustainability of people’s livelihoods. “If your environment is healthy, the means to meet your needs would be readily available”. Any activity distorting these services or benefits would have some impact on the livelihood of the people. The levels of these impacts on their livelihood are proportional to the magnitude of the pollution.  “Our environment defines our well-being and if the environment is sick (unhealthy), the humans in the environment would be sick”. There is an unavoidable synchronization of a man’s health with his environment. A man can never be dis-synchronized from his environment,- “what goes around comes around”. If you treat your environment well, your environment will treat you well in return.

This menace called “pollution” is attributed to the action of individuals/entities who make use of the environment in an unsustainable way, thereby introducing pollutants into the environment.  Some of the actions that result in pollution in the coastal area of Ghana are discussed below;

  1. Gold mining

Ghana is known to be the largest gold producer in Africa after South Africa. Gold mining in Ghana was the reason the country was named “Gold Coast”. The sector according to the International Trade Administration in the year 2020 has since attracted international investment since the country’s Economy Recovery Programme in 1983. The sector accounts for about one-third of the revenues generated from exportations and also contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. About 95% of the total mineral revenue by the country is from the gold mining sector.

Gold mining is however a threat to the environment where they are done. Lands are been degraded due to the mining activities and as a result several endemic species of both flora and fauna are lost. The majority of the water bodies in Ghana especially water bodies in the Western and Ashanti regions are seriously threatened by the mining activities. The water bodies have been rendered uinhabitable to aquatic life and their use by humans for their livelihood activities has greatly been affected. Of the three-river system in Ghana (the Coastal, Volta, and South-western River system), the Volta-river system appears to have less share of the impacts of the mining activities. The Southwestern Rivers (Pra and Ankobra) are seriously impacted and are unfit for any use as the mining activities have led to the siltation of the water bodies resulting in aesthetic impairment and benthic habitat destruction. Several species of shell and finfishes are no more found in the rivers. In an interaction with the people of Anlo (Shama district) community, they said  “we do harvest oysters in our waters before, but now oysters are no more here”.

The people of Anlo previously depended on the water from the Pra River as groundwater in the coastal areas is saline due to seawater intrusion. Now, they struggle with good water supply for their daily activities. “We cook and drink the water in the past, but now we cannot even use the water to wash our clothes not to think of cooking and drinking it” the people of Anlo expressed bitterly.

Furthermore, in countries where aquaculture and mariculture are practiced, the rivers and other coastal waters are very important in the industry, but in the case of Ghana, the industry is experiencing serious challenges from water pollution due to mining activities. The adjacent ocean and estuaries are not left out, as the quality of these water bodies is degraded and made uninhabitable or unconducive for aquatic life. This therefore has implications on the fishery industry as fishermen who are used to fishing in the coastal waters have to travel far (to other communities), move farther into the sea, or migrate to other countries for fishing, costing them much. For instance, going farther into the sea requires the purchase of inshore vessels or industrial vessels. In cases where these options are beyond their reach, they have been rendered jobless.

  1. Improper waste disposal

Improper waste disposal in the coastal areas has been a culture of so many in developing and underdeveloped countries. The case of Ghana is not different as communities along the coast are found disposing their wastes directly into water bodies without thinking about the implication of their actions. Mr. Kojo Nyamekye, a fisherman in Elmina said in an interview: “some of the wastes are being swept into the lagoon and the sea by the people while some of the wastes are brought from their homes and disposed into the sea”. In some areas, people dispose of their waste directly into drainages and when it rains, the waste is washed into rivers and other water bodies. Some of these wastes end up blocking drainages and lead to flooding of the communities. These wastes are from both domestic and industrial sources. Plastic and other polymers are major components of the wastes. Mr. Kwame Ackon, a fisherman and carpenter at the Elmina fish landing site confirmed that most of the wastes being caught along with fish were mainly plastics and other polymers. He added, “some people take wastes to the sea while others bring wastes from the sea in form of catch”.

Sewage and sludges are mostly disposed into water bodies as industries and residential homes see the water bodies as the most convenient place to dispose of their wastes. Several drainages are been channeled into the Benya lagoon and Fosu lagoon in Elmina and Cape Coast respectively. Recently Fosu lagoon was dredged to get rid of some wastes and allow fresh water to enter into the lagoon but waste disposal into and around the lagoon has not stopped. Toilets are channeled into some of these water bodies and fecal wastes are emptied directly into them.

  1. Open defecation.

Open defecation is the practice of defecating or excreting outside or in an open space instead of a toilet. These open spaces include beaches, bushes, canals, rivers, and other water bodies. It is a habit commonly seen among people living along the coasts and water bodies in developing countries like Ghana. Males and females come out in their numbers to defecate at the beach especially in the early hours of the day. As seen at Sawuma  (Nzema East, District), males and females have different sides of the beach where they do “their thing”. Women were seen using the secluded part of the beach while men use the open beach. Open defecation in the coastal communities is majorly caused by inadequate private and public toilet facilities and also some attitudes where some people preferred the open space than using the toilet facilities. Some of the people expressed, “we enjoy the fresh air or the breeze at the beach when defecating”. Another way that is quite different from using open space is “defecating into rubber bags, papers, and plastic containers and pouring them directly into the water”. Mangrove patches and bushes around lagoons are mostly used by the people as their toilets where they defecate whereas in some cases, pits are dung in the mangrove patches and their excreta are dropped into the pit. For people living around river estuaries, sometimes they directly do it into the water or dispose of it using plastic containers or rubber bags. Open defecation in the coastal areas has been linked to a lot of health issues and diseases like cholera, child mortality, poor nutrition, and poverty resulting from livelihood threats.

  1. Fertilizers and Harmful Chemicals

The use of chemicals in agricultural practices is widely done in Ghana. For example, the herbicides used in the clearing of lands, pesticides used in the fumigation of cash crops especially cocoa, pineapples, and watermelons. Some of the people interviewed in a survey at Anlo, Shama district, identified some of these chemicals as threats to their environment as they affect non-target organisms and sometimes they are washed into the water bodies. In response to this, Mr. Kojo Nyamekye said “some fishermen make use of chemicals when fishing in the sea and other coastal water bodies”. Many fishermen are engaged in destructive fishing using chemicals and detergents mixed with explosives in fishing in the country. The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) global outreach programme that was carried out recently by the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (University of Cape Coast) on educating the students of Ampenyi M/A Basic School on the theme “Environmental education towards the conservation of Biodiversity in the Brenu Lagoon Ghana”, students were asked in the course the programme the sources of pollution to Brenu Lagoon. It was surprising to hear a student mentioning Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). DDT is an insecticide used in agriculture that has been banned in the United States in 1972 but is still widely used in this part of the world with long-lasting adverse effects on the environment.  The insecticide is also used in the country in controlling mosquitoes. In addition, the use of fertilizers and other chemicals in agricultural and fishing practices has adverse effects on the environment as they pollute both surface and underground waters, and these elicit some health issues in the humans who directly or indirectly depend on them. Fish (es) caught with chemicals when consumed by humans could have both acute and chronic health effects.

Other effects of pollution threatening the coastal communities are:

  1. Degradation of water quality resulting in depleted fisheries.
  2. Decrease in aesthetics of water bodies and beaches, which negatively impacts tourism in the affected areas.
  3. Reduction in ecosystem services leading to a shortage of provisional services from the water bodies. For example, several fisher folks are experiencing a reduction in their income as a result of low fish catch, and sometimes, several amounts of investment are wasted as the fishermen returned from the sea with garbage in their nets.
  4. Loss of agricultural land for cocoa planting and other cash crops production in the western region of Ghana due to land degradation and habitat fragmentation.

Marine contamination is a major hazard to our ocean. Is there a solution to the problem of marine pollution?. Humans are both a part of the problem and the solution to ocean pollution, whether they live near the shore or far inland. We can all contribute to reducing the amount of pollution entering our oceans by changing our attitudes and everyday habits.

By Charles Faseyi | 2021 SOA Ghana Fellow

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News SOA Ghana Fellows

SOA Ghana Hub Mentors: Prince Appiah

Prince Appiah is a development journalist and producer of multimedia story content. He currently works with www.myjoyonline.com , LUV FM and JOY NEWS TV, whose work spans agriculture, climate change, environment and business.

Prince heads the Business Desk at LUV FM in Kumasi of the Ashanti Region in Ghana. He is the 2019 winner of IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders Award in Agricultural Journalism.

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Climate & Ocean Action Climate Change Home News

Call for Applications: Reporting on marine pollution and Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in Ghana

Introduction and call for Applications:

Sustainable Ocean Alliance Ghana (SOA Ghana) is calling on all interested journalists in Ghana to apply to be a part of the effort to address challenges confronting the marine ecosystem.

The initiative is aimed at training journalists to produce data driven stories bothering on sustainable fishing practices, marine pollution and the general challenges confronting the ocean ecosystem.

The project titled: ‘Using Journalism to Counter IUU and marine pollution’ is part of the global effort to support and promote the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources in accordance with United Nations SDG14.

Eligibility

Applicants are expected to be:

•            Ghanaian nationals aged between 18 and 35 years old, and belong to the group of young people who are prepared to play a decisive role in shaping the future of Ghana.

•            Student journalists or journalists, young leaders, people who are active in social movements online, and community organizations.

•            People or activists who have been directly contributing to conservation programs or climate change activities.

Requirements:

All selected applicants will be MANDATED to produce at least two stories after training program.

Preferable: Applicants should be active on social media and MUST follow our social media handles: Twitter: @soaghanahub or https://twitter.com/soaghanahub and Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/SOAGhana/

Important Dates:

•            Deadline for applications:  20th August 2021; 11: 00pm GMT. Applicants will also be selected on rolling basis.

•            All selected applicants will be contacted by 30th August, 2021.

•            Training may take place in-person or online due to COVID-19 and date will be subsequently communicated.

NB: Female applicants are strongly encouraged! You may call 0543342677 for further information.

Click Here to Apply Or copy and paste link below in your browser: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSekrZ6X90qaLSQ4A23CTuwi_pX9KjXRf2t837lHclWsUTxrKA/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1

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Climate & Ocean Action Climate Change Home News

WHY GHANA MUST KEEP ITS LANDING BEACHES CLEAN

“Cleanliness they say is next to godliness” an expression by John Wesley in the 17th century. It is well-known that an individual is likely to be clear-headed and well-endowed to effectuate positivity that will accordingly draw him closer to the Supreme Being in an immaculate environment.
We are in times where the world’s population is eminently increasing due to swift urbanization and this has led to a significant production of waste and different kinds of pollutants. These wastes travel as far as our beaches and into the ocean causing detrimental effects including, jeopardizing the ocean ecosystem in tandem with the interference with human use of ocean and coastal environments.

Fish landing site in Apam/ Credit: Eunice Osei-Yeboah
Fish landing site in Apam/ Credit: Eunice Osei-Yeboah


According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the larger part of pollutants that enter the ocean come from anthropogenic activities along the coastlines.
The ocean plays an essential role in the life of man. Among all the resources from the ocean, fish constitutes a larger part and pervades more diverse oceanic environments. In September 2014, the FAO Director-General, José Graziano da Silva in a conference on Sustainable fisheries expressed that, 4.3 billion people in the world are dependent on fish for 15% of their animal protein intake. Resources from the ocean make key inputs to the economy and well-being in many sectors and the populace. Supplementarily, the ocean aids in regulating climate and weather. Marine and Ocean Pollution Statistics and Facts 2020 indicated that over 70% of the oxygen we respire is directly produced by marine plants.
In spite of all these incredible assets to man, the ocean is being consumed by marine litter.
The UN Environment Program (UNEP), defines marine litter as any persistent, manufactured, or processed solid material discarded, disposed of, or abandoned in the marine and coastal environments.
Analysis of marine waste however reveals that plastics constitute a weightier percentage of the marine litter internationally. In a review of available literature, plastic wastes on the beaches continue to increase with sizes differing from containers, fishing nets to microscopic plastic pellets and particles. One of the problems troubling the marine terrain in Ghana is the quandary of careless dumping of wastes.
In the early hours of one busy Monday morning (November 30, 2020), I dropped in Jamestown, a borough situated within the Asheidu Keteke Sub-Metro in the Accra Metropolis. Arguably, it is a small and densely populated community that depends typically on fishing. I took the opportune moment to visit the beach. As the saying goes, “the morning breeze has secrets to tell you” Indisputably, the onshore breeze had a secret to tell – “the air you breathe might perhaps be contaminated from marine litter that once floated in the sea”.

Fish landing site in Jamestown/Credit: Eunice Osei-Yeboah
Fish landing site in Jamestown/Credit: Eunice Osei-Yeboah



At the landing beach, a lot of canoes were docked because of the appearance of the full moon. Most fishers were of the view that fishing is less productive when there is a full moon. The vast area was entirely fraught with trash.
United States Environmental Protection Agency, has laid out that, when trash finds its way into the ocean through ocean currents, they are often eaten by birds and fish and that concentrate toxic chemicals in their tissues, fill their stomachs, and cause them to starve which can possibly cause their depletion.
In addition, marine litter does not only diminish the aesthetic and recreational values of beaches and marine resources, but it can also cause life-threatening medical problems.
Marine debris is extremely likely to author coastal water contamination and as made evident by Marine and Ocean Pollution Statistics and Facts 2020, such contamination is guilty of 250 million clinical cases of human diseases annually. Diseases and severe problems associated include; nervous system damage, kidney issues, and reproductive or hormonal issues.
According to World Population Review, the current population of Ghana based on the latest United Nations data is over 31 million people. FAO has however indicated that as many as 2.6 million of the population of Ghana depend on fisheries for livelihood.
What happens when our resources are ruined by trash? Imagine; our beaches been filled with trash, our water bodies been consumed with trash, a country with no resources from its water bodies – a very frightening prospect. Not only will our water bodies be affected, but also the livelihood of many would be at risk. The effect would, directly and indirectly, be felt by everyone.
We all have a part to play in saving our ocean and keeping the beaches clean.
Be a part of the solution, not the pollution!

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