A persistent smell of human waste coming from an overflowing septic tank on the premises of the Upper East Regional Health Directorate, so strong people cannot eat at nearby food joints without holding thick handkerchiefs to their noses, has incited deep concerns among residents.

Baffled observers say it is difficult to figure out the irony of a health management institution that advertises public health and yet puts the health of the same public at risk by ‘releasing cholera liquid’ right from its headquarters and ‘watching unconcerned’ as it flows outside to cause irritation and threats to the public.

“My brother, the smell from the septic tank, whenever the waste is gushing out, is so powerful it can revive a person in coma. I laugh with pain when the Ghana Health Service says, ‘Your health is our concern’. Where is the concern here? You can just see the contradiction here for yourself— plain, plain. The cholera you are preaching against is being produced right from your yard. The mess of the exposed septic tank didn’t start this year.

“The septic tank holds waste from both a canteen inside that yard and a lounge put up for drivers at the directorate. That septic tank is too small for the canteen and the lounge. It’s overwhelmed. And because it is too small, it always gets full too soon and the waste begins to ooze out everywhere before they think of emptying it,” an irritated resident, Robert Baba Aziriba, told Starr News.

Another resident, Michael Atule, complained: “The entire sewage system wasn’t properly laid such that when you look at the Ghana Health Service canteen itself, the two cesspits attached to it also do get full too soon, causing a strong stench as well. All they need do is expand the septic tank so it can accommodate more waste and you don’t have to spend too much too often trying to empty it.”

“We are taking action this week” — Regional Health Director

When residents grumbled in January, this year, about the stink and the houseflies attracted to the semisolid waste flowing out from the overfull holding tank, Starr News approached the Regional Health Director of Health, Dr. Wilfred Ofosu, on the matter on February 14 (Valentine’s Day).



He appeared quite oblivious of the issue as he took over office not too long ago— October, 2017. But he gave an assurance that the directorate’s estate manager would be tasked to get the septic tank fixed in no time.

Public grievances over the stench faded away after the estate manager was spotted around the septic tank two days later, taking measurements. But the complaints bounced back as the smell persisted and nothing, in spite of everything said, seemed being done about it.

“The septic tank itself has no proper slab covering it. It was one woman who sells food next to the walls of the directorate who looked for some wood and some old roofing sheets herself to cover it. My worry is not just about the smell, or the cholera the menace can bring to us.

“It is about the children who roam and play within this Ministries Area especially on weekends. Any of those children could end up falling inside the shithole one day with no adult around to help,” lamented Iddrisu Sumaila, one of the skeptical residents who believe the measurements taken by the estate manager was a mere attention grabber.

Dr. Ofosu, when contacted Saturday, told Starr News on the telephone all was set to deal with the problem once and for all in the week ahead.

“They have made the estimate and brought it. This coming week we’ll expand it. We are going to expand it. We’ll get people to dig an extended area and do a new one so that it won’t overflow again. That’s what we’ are going to do,” he guaranteed.

Emptying septic tank on working days wrong — Workers

Workers within the Ministries Area, where the office block of the regional health directorate is situated, also are unhappy about the usual timing for the emptying of the septic tank.

The emptying is habitually done on working days and mostly during the prime hours. The far-spreading nauseating odour, the workers say, poses a lot of discomfort and distraction to them and to visitors as well as passersby when it is done on working days.

“One day, I approached the Zoomlion staff who have been coming to pull the waste from the septic tank and asked them why they would never do it on weekends. They told me they, too, had suggested the same thing, that they should always empty it at weekends, but the calls would always come with pressure on working days to get it done during office hours.

“When they begin to pull the stuffs from the pit, you can’t sit in your office, especially those in the Judicial Service, those on the Ghana Immigration Service block and in the Lands Commission building because they are very close to the health directorate building. We know some of us eat at that Ghana Health Service canteen because it is open to the public, but that shouldn’t create unnecessary nuisance to anyone. Pulling human waste from a cesspit or whatever when people are in their offices working is completely wide of the mark,” Mercy A. Manu, a worker in the vicinity, stated.