I have lived in James Town for the past 10 years.

James Town is more of a fishing and a trading

community . Looking at my community, the political aspect is made up of the Assembly man
and the Member of parliament. These political leaders are voted and elected by the people in
the community and the parliament of the country, Ghana.

Every community has a different socio-cultural factors which may include factors like, cultural
beliefs, languages, educational attainment and ethnic groups. Most people in my community
thus, James Town, have different cultural beliefs based on their origination, thus, where they
come from before settling in their current community though it is a Ga community. When it
come to the languages, about 20% of the people are fluent in Twi, 65% in Ga and the remaining
in Ewe though some of the people are able to speak all these three languages including Hausa.
Some of the people in the community have low level of education whereas just a few are well
educated. The ethnic groups in James Town consist of the Gas' especially, few Akans, Akuapem,
Fantes, Ewes and the Northerners as well.

Most people in my community are poor especially with the illiterate. Most parents in the
community do fishing or sell small provisions or vegetables to be able to take care of their
family. This makes the living for the people in the community very hard and difficult for them.
To some extent, some live in a kiosk because they are not able to afford the rent or buy a
house. Few people have a well paid jobs and a good living unlike the other people who do not
have. The economic situation in my community is very poor.
There are many problems a community or most communities’ encounter. The problems may
include poor health services, poverty, corruption, poor quality education, unemployment, high
rate of teenage pregnancy, poor access to resources, lack of goods and services and among
others. With my community, thus James Town, the main problem we are facing is poor
sanitation.In Ghana, less than a quarter of the population have access to improved sanitation
(WHO/UNICEF, 2015). There is poor sanitation in the community which is leading to the spread
of diseases like cholera, diarrhae or even malaria. I once visited the hospital in my community
because I had malaria. I got there only to realize that majority of the people from the
community were suffering from cholera especially. They have no idea on good sanitation which
they end up suffering from these diseses and having high financial cost in curing themselves.

There's is no proper place of disposing waste in the community. The cars or motors (aboboya)
that comes for the refuse to be able to dispose them properly also charge the people
expensively and majority of the people are not able to pay.This makes the people dump their
refuse or waste anywhere. They throw it in the gutters getting other choked, leading to flooding
when there is a heavy downfall of rain. The checked gutters end up breeding mosquitoes and
give out malaria, dumping of solid wastes in the water bodies and even their surroundings. To
some extent, children and even some adults defecate into the water bodies which they use in
cooking at times or drinking or doing other things. This becomes unsafe for human
consumption.

Below is a picture of the improper disposal of solid wastes in the community.

Also, we lack sanitation facilities in the community. These facilities may include toilets or
latrines. There are no enough toilets to help people release their waste appropriately so they
rather release their waste in the water bodies and sometimes on the land. Dustbin are not
enough for this community to dump their solid waste in them.

The market women or food vendors also do not keep their surroundings clean. They dump their
solid wastes just around their surroundings where they sell their food stuffs. This contaminates
the food products which is unsafe for human consumption. Mosquitoes and houseflies all over
the foods or products they sell. They also do not arrange the food products appropriately and
some are even left on the floor. We the consumers also purchase them and consume them
andthe the end, we suffer from diseases like cholera, typhoid, food poisoning or diarrhoea.
The plastic wastes being dumped on the floor contaminates the land because of the chemicals
in the plastics. When they are left on the floor or the land for a very long time, the chemicals
are released into the soil which destroys the proper growth of the grasses and plants.

All these affect the people in the community especially in terms of their health without their
knowledge because they have lived in this almost all their lives and are used to this.

The people in the community can be organized and engaged in several ways.

I will find all possible ways to meet with the traditional council, the chief of the community and
discuss with him the problems the people in the community are facing. Ask for permission if he
would allow me organize the people with his elders so we can engage them with good
measures of keeping the community clean.

Also, I will write letters to the other leaders of the community like the Member of parliament,
or Assembly man if they could support me in organising the people of the community.

If all these leader agree with me to hel organize the people, then I will proceed with seeing any
good health personnel so they can help in educating the people on good sanitation.

With the help of the leaders, we will inform the people to gather at the school park and engage
them properly on this exercise.

The health personnel will educate the people on poor sanitation, the causes and effect of it. I
will also project a video and pictures of how bad the environment has become and the rate at
which people are dying out of the diseases related to the poor sanitation like cholera, food
poisoning ,diarrhoea, typhoid and malaria. With this, the health personnel will be able to
educate them and convince them on good sanitation and ensure their environment is always
clean.

The people in the community will also be engaged in general clean up exercises which will be
compulsory for everyone to participate in it especially the youth.
There are several sustainable solutions to help curb the problem in the community, thus, the
poor sanitation. They may include,

Education. In the view of Owusu Sekyere, Bagah, and Quansah (2015), educating the masses on
ESM raises their consciousness on environmental sanitation. Through the education, the people
will gain more knowledge and understanding on why they should keep their environment clean,
the consequences they will face if they do not keep their surroundings clean. The education will
let the people know the importance of sanitation and it will help improve the environmental
sanitation and the health of the people and have a sustainable development in the community.

Sanitation facilities should be provided in the community. Tsinda (2011) as well as (Mensah,
2019) maintain that sanitation infrastructure such as toilet facilities, refuse bins, drainage
system, vehicles for transporting waste to the dumpsite and others are important for ESM.
These provision of facilities will help in reducing the act of open defecation in the environment
and improper waste disposal practices in the community.

Regulation or law enforcement of sanitation should be established in the community. Adukia

(2016) on the other hand argues that sanitation education and infrastructure provision alone
may not be enough to ensure the desired standard of sanitation so there is the need for
regulation of people’s sanitation behaviour and practices. I suggest that the leaders in the
community should establish a law that if anyone is found defeating openly in the environment
or dumps their solid wastes in the environment will be sanctioned. This would make the people
in the community alert and not go contrary to the rule given by the leaders in the community.
They can also decide that every first Saturday in the month will be dedicated to general clean
up exercises and everyone is entitled to participate except the little children and the aged. The
leaders should ensure the effectiveness of the law made in the community and this will also
help improve the environmental sanitation in the community and develop the community.

With all these said and done, my community, James Town will become a very clean and
developed community in terms of sanitation and it will also improve the health of the people in
the community.