The last couple of years have seen the outbreak of cholera at various parts of the country, including some suburbs of the nation’s capital, Accra. Fortunately for us we know the cause of cholera – filth.. Unfortunately, however, residents are left to look on helplessly as filth engulfs them, and all they can do is lament over it.

However, when complaints to the people’s representatives at the local level yield little results, then clearly, the people are left with no choice than to feel neglected.

The build-up of refuse in residential communities in urban centres has often exposed our inability to manage waste and also how the people are regularly exposed to living dangerously.

The problem of waste management is one that The Chronicle believes should be placed high on the national agenda as to how the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are faring.

It has become obvious that the metropolitan and municipal assemblies in particular, are making heavy weather of the waste management problem in the cities, either because they do not provide adequately in terms of funding for that purpose or they lack expertise for proper planning.

It is about time we adopted a national policy on waste disposal, taking into consideration the uses to which waste could be put such as power generation, manuring etc.

One of the first complaints that is given when the issue of waste utilization is raised is our culture of dumping all kinds of materials in the same containers which makes it difficult for their recycling.

As we brainstorm over finding a more efficient way of waste disposal we must consider also how to utilize the garbage so that we end up killing two birds with one stone.

The consequences of filth engulfing us are real. Some lives have been lost to cholera over the last couple of years and we must not wait till what stares us in the face assumes catastrophic dimensions before we resort to fire fighting.

Elsewhere in The Chronicle is an alarm on filth engulfing some areas of Korle-Gonno, near the nation’s leading health facility - Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

If indeed complaints by the people’s representatives – assemblymen – at the local level go unheeded then that can only leave the people in the community living dangerously and hoping against hope that a calamity does not befall them.