By midday almost every day, the gutters at the Sunyani Main Market and the Nana Bosoma Market are filled and choked with all kinds of waste materials. Plastic bags, fruit peels and sachet-water rubbers float in the gutters. The water has turned black, while students from nearby basic and senior high schools walk through the dirty areas, sometimes barefoot, on their way to class.

When it rains, the problem gets worse. Running water finds its way into shops, classrooms and homes around Magazine, Estate and Fiapre. For residents, this is a sign of Sunyani’s growing waste-management problem, and no one appears to be spared.

Voices from the Community
To understand how the situation is affecting people, I spoke with three residents and workers in Sunyani.

1. Madam Comfort Yeboah, 42, Vegetable Seller

Madam Comfort has been trading at the Sunyani Main Market for nine years.

Question: Madam Comfort, what is the biggest challenge here at the market?

“Eeeih, it’s the rubbish and the smell. Every morning we sweep, but there’s nowhere to put the rubbish. The big container is always full by 9 a.m.”

Question: What happens when it rains?
“The water comes into my shop with all the dirt. Last June, I lost plantain and pepper worth GH¢600. My feet also get rashes from walking in the dirty water.”

2. Isaac Appiah, 26, Tricycle Waste Collector (“Borla Taxi”)

Question: Isaac, what do you see on your rounds?

“Boss, Sunyani is getting dirty fast. I cover Estate, New Dormaa and Magazine. People dump waste by the roadside at night because the skip is far away.”

Question: What makes your work difficult?
“The roads. When it rains, the gutters are blocked, so the water carries the rubbish and spreads it everywhere. Sometimes, my tricycle gets stuck in the mud.”

Question: What is your solution?
“We need communal containers on every two streets, not just in the market. And we need the youth to stop throwing ‘pure water’ rubbers anyhow.”

3. Mr. Emmanuel Kusi, Environmental Health Officer, Sunyani Municipal Assembly

Question: Sir, what is the Sunyani Municipal Assembly doing about waste management in Sunyani?

“We have a sanitation by-law, and we organise clean-up exercises every first Saturday. We’ve also contracted Zoomlion to collect waste three times a week in the central areas.”

Question: Why are the drains still choked?
“The population of Sunyani has doubled in five years. More people mean more waste, but our trucks and containers have not increased. Also, some developers build on waterways.”

Question: What is the plan going forward?
“By October, we will start a market-waste segregation pilot at the Main Market and Nana Bosoma Market. We’ll also prosecute people caught dumping waste into drains. But we need the public to cooperate.”

How the Challenge Is Affecting Sunyani
1. Health
The Sunyani Municipal Hospital reportedly recorded 280 cases of malaria and 45 cases of diarrhoea in July alone. Health officials have linked some of these cases to stagnant water in choked drains.

2. Flooding
Areas such as Magazine, Area 2 and parts of Fiapre reportedly flood whenever it rains for about 30 minutes. Last month, four classrooms at Sunyani Methodist JHS were affected after floodwater carrying mud entered the classrooms.

3. Business Losses
Traders say they lose goods during flooding, while some customers avoid dirty sections of the market.

“People from Techiman and Kumasi don’t want to buy food here when it’s dirty,” Madam Comfort said.

4. Cost to the Assembly
The Sunyani Municipal Assembly reportedly spends more than GH¢1.2 million annually to desilt drains and evacuate waste, money that could otherwise support other development needs, including roads and schools.

Community Efforts and What’s Next

Despite the challenges, residents and community groups are not giving up.

The Sunyani Youth for Clean City group organises clean-up exercises on the last Friday of every month. Some schools, including St. James Seminary, have also adopted streets and undertake monthly sweeping exercises.

The Sunyani Municipal Assembly says it will add 15 new waste bins in the Central Business District (CBD) and begin door-to-door waste collection in five suburbs by September.

“We love Sunyani,” Isaac said. “We call it the cleanest city in Ghana. But if we don’t act now, the rubbish will swallow us.”

As evening fell at the Main Market, the last waste-collection truck had not yet arrived. Traders were already praying that there would be no rain that night.

(The author is a 13-year-old citizen journalist based in Odomase, near Sunyani)