How an area handles weather conditions is always an interesting topic. While the bare subject of just weather is possibly one of the weakest points of small talk in human history, the way it affects a city’s infrastructure is worth talking about.

Accra is a developing area, but one aspect that seems grossly underdeveloped in regard to everything else is the city’s drainage system. Actually, this applies to most of Ghana as the country is full of gutters that are meant to serve as a drain for excess water. However these gutters tend to fill up quickly during the storm heavy seasons.

More concerning is the amount of garbage that is littered across these gutters which clogs up the this one-way route for waste water. The city tends to flood easily and this creates a pool of trash infested water. Accra gains an added level of grime, dirt and trash every time the gutters flood which makes cleanliness an extreme challenge to maintain.

While Accra is a developing city, there needs to be more moderation of these gutters. No one is safe from exposure to these waters and it’s detrimental to the public’s health. Unfortunately, the discarding of trash and the practice of urination in the gutters is going to take some time to reverse on a city-wide scale. If Ghana is to attract a greater international appeal, action must be taken to clean the gutters and facilitate smarter waste disposal.