I woke up today singing \u201cGod Bless our home land Ghana\u201d. This was before entering the bathroom.\u00a0 I asked myself if I really feel proud any more as a Ghanaian. Truth is I don\u2019t feel sure of my country anymore 56 years after independence. 56 years since we declared to the world the we can manage our own affairs! If I had my way, this Independence Day will be declared as a period of national fast to pray to God to save our nation from gross mismanagement over the years.<\/p>\n
56 years we are still grappling with ways to solve what can be considered as basic needs of a country. 56 years after Independence all our solutions have been reduced to \u201cWe will, we plan to, we hoping to, plans are far advanced\u201d. All the so called solutions have been piled up in the pipeline probably waiting to explode in our faces. Oh Ghana my Motherland!!!<\/p>\n
See what is happening in our power sector? We are always waiting for some mega watts to top up some megawatts. How sad can it get if at 56 the President of the country can\u2019t sleep because the country has been plunged into darkness?<\/p>\n
We are being told by the Volta River Authority that we have a shortfall because we consume what we produce so we have no reserve. We are waiting for Takoradi-T3 project to produce\u00a0\u00a0 120 Megawatts. Oh I almost forgot about the West Africa Gas Pipe project, Bui and Asogli. All these are supposed to augment the megawatts for the generation of electricity by the middle of the year. Let\u2019s wait and see! But in the meantime let businesses collapse, let investors reconsider their decision to invest in Ghana and let households\u2019 burn as a result of power fluctuation.<\/p>\n
At 56 Ghana is thirsty! The country has just failed to invest heavily in the water sector to ensure access to clean potable water.\u00a0 At 56 my mama land is rationing water?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s amazing how upon all the travels embarked upon by the leaders they have just failed to apply what has worked for other countries in dealing with our problems. Whatever happened to the sharing of knowledge? Israel for instance is on the edge of a dessert obviously an area where water has always been short. Asked by the Times of Israel how they have been able to manage the water problem to the extent of getting water to sustain the country Alexander Kushnir, head of the Water Authority replied: \u201cHow did we beat the water shortage? Because we <\/i>said we would. We decided we would, and once you\u2019ve made that decision, you build the tools to reduce your dependence. We\u2019re on the edge of the desert in an area where water has always been short. The quantity of natural water per capita in Israel is the lowest for the whole region. But we decided early on that we were developing a modern state. So we were required to supply water for agriculture, and water for industry, and then water for hi-tech, and water to sustain an appropriate quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Have we resolved as a nation to deal with problems facing our water sector, so we can provide clean water for all? Beyond the talk have we built tools to ensure we revamp the water sector?<\/p>\n
If people in the urban areas don\u2019t have access to water, I can only imagine how the situation looks like for women and children in the rural areas who walk miles just to get unclean water.<\/p>\n
According to a research by WaterAid <\/i>over 2000 kids die daily as a result of the use of unclean water for cooking drinking and cleaning. In Ghana about 9 million people do not have access to safe drinking water according to WaterAid<\/i> but ironically about 55 billion cubic metres of water from our country go into the sea every single day untapped.<\/p>\n
When Accra was ranked by the New York Times as one of the Cities to visit I was shocked. I still don\u2019t agree to that conclusion not while we wallow in filth we just can\u2019t manage. Communities are crying over the use of their vicinities as dumping sites.\u00a0 56 years we are still looking for a place to dump filth. I won\u2019t even talk about the issue of recycling.<\/p>\n
We are just not on point with solving our sanitation issues. I am not a pessimist but sometimes I wonder what will become of the Conti project? Hawkers are everywhere trading and making our streets dirty yet there is not permanent political will to get them off the streets all efforts seem to have failed over the years.<\/p>\n
Education in our schools in this day and age have not been tailored towards growing and developing minds to be innovative and ready for the job market .So graduate unemployment is on the upsurge. Syllabus and courses outline have hardly been reviewed over the years to reflect education in the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n I am not such a finance incline person but I am pretty sure from the debate ongoing in the country our economic deficits is quite depressing. I think I heard the finance minister Seth Tepke says yesterday that \u201cwe must also borrow to develop\u201d. Unfortunately that is the mentality we have as a nation.\u00a0 We are so used to borrowing and receiving donor supports I don\u2019t think we are even comfortable with our middle income status (which is very contentious).<\/p>\n Leaving home for work yesterday, I saw students of a primary school close to my vicinity busy rehearsing for today in the burning hot sun, and I asked myself how much of this is worth it? Seriously I don\u2019t know why school children should go stand in the scotching sun and match. You see, even the Independence Day apart from the fact that it is not worth celebrating considering the state the country finds itself should change with regards to the mode of celebration. Oh!!!\u00a0 I just remembered I am in Ghana where very few people can think of innovative ways of doing things our politicians so not included in this few.<\/p>\n We need to get serious as a country and get our priorities right. It shouldn\u2019t be so hard to be a Ghanaian if we stop pursuing our individual interests which is the real reason why corruption has clothed the nation.<\/p>\n Well since I cannot change my identity I only hope these issues raised will change by the time Ghana turns 57.<\/p>\n Oman yi s3 ebeyeyie oo<\/em><\/p>\n Oman yi s3 erenyeyie oo<\/em><\/p>\n Ey3 nsenah) s3<\/em><\/p>\n Omanfo bra na kyer3<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Betty Kankam-Boadu\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I woke up today singing \u201cGod Bless our home land Ghana\u201d. This was before entering the bathroom.\u00a0 I asked myself if I really feel proud any more as a Ghanaian. Truth is I don\u2019t feel sure of my country anymore 56 years after independence. 56 years since we declared to the world the we can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":18261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[374],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n