Ghana: Gateway or dumping ground?

By Doreen Hammond
The Ghanaian is fascinated by appellations. This is no secret. So everybody is a Togbe, Nana, Nii or Agyeman. This may be without recourse to the fact that the person has not done anything for even his immediate community, not to talk of town.
Perhaps the only group of people whose penchant for appellations surpasses that of the Ghanaian is the Nigerian. It is only in Nigeria that one person could be addressed as Professor, Dr Dr Engineer Lawyer Chief. No wonder we are not only neighbours but also cousins and we are learning a lot from each other.

Our love for appellations transcends the individual to the national. Hence we have Ghana being first in so many things. First Black African country south of the Sahara to win independence, first to declare HIPC and now Gateway to the continent Africa.

Not that it hurts anybody if we decide to indulge ourselves in this unnecessary game of naming ourselves as almost the best in everything even if the reality is different.

The story is told of how the Nigerians quickly dubbed their country as the destination in apparent response to Ghana’s claim of being the gateway. Of course it is all part of the banters we must engage in despite our dire poverty and seemingly hopeless circumstances. As the saying goes, yesu koraa ye gyae hem; even as we weep we pause occasionally to blow our noses.

But the issue of dumping of all manner of goods in our country under the guise of free trade or if you like liberalisation is certainly not a laughing matter.

Though it may be difficult to put a date on when the practice of importing used foreign products into the country started, the practice gained currency in the 1990s and has continued in earnest until date.

The typical Ghanaian, never in short supply of humour, euphemistically refers to such goods as Eurocarcass, the short form of European carcass. For clothing, the name is obroni wawu, literally meaning the white man is dead.

The goods are imported from anywhere one can think of with Korea now being a major supplier even though it started mostly with our European and American friends.

The type of items imported varies. They range from sound systems, television sets, fridges, wheelchairs, books, clothing, toys, rags, cooking utensils, footwear to chamber pots. It is quite difficult to understand why we have gone to the extent of buying and using a pre- owned chamber pot !

In recent years, electronic gadgets like computers and their accessories have come to form a major part of these imports.

The health implications for using used underwear and other personal clothing have been highlighted over the period, leading to a supposed ban on this category of imports. As to whether the ban is being effected is a question we all need to address as a people, though on my last visit to Kantamanto a week ago, I saw these items including panties boldly displayed for sale.
Another type of goods whose continuous dumping on us has a serious and negative impact are used fridges, air conditioners, microwave ovens and television sets.

What is compounding the problem is that in the host country, these things are considered unfit for use and hazardous to health and disposal is a problem. Hence, the prospective buyer is not left with a choice as to selecting the good ones and leaving the rest.

So the typical Ghanaian importer goes for a 40- footer container full of television sets and fridges and after it has been cleared at the port, he opens the container to find that about 50 per cent of the items are not useable.

While he may have helped the German, the Italian and the Koreans to clear their borla (garbage), all that he would have done to us would have been compounding our already precarious waste disposal problems and adding on the attendant environmental problems.

According to documents provided by Mrs Angelina Tutuah-Mensah, Deputy Director of Public Affairs of the Environmental Protection Agency, on ozone layer protection, emissions from these items like refrigerators etc. affect the environment adversely. Such emissions contain substances containing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCS) which contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer.

Some of them have been discarded from their places of origin because they contain CFCs which are commonly used as coolants. Because of the harmful effects of CFCs to the environment, they are being phased out.

The EPA document advises that we should buy fridges which are ozone friendly and that we should pay attention to the manufacturers information needed to make a wise choice. But is that what we are doing?

Hardi is a used refrigerator importer in Taifa. He says that when his container of fridges arrives, he sells the bulk of them untested, that way prices are very affordable. However, after the bulk has been bought, he now calls in a fridge repairer to test and repair those which are not working. He sells those which are unserviceable to fridge repairers who remove parts to service customer’s fridges. What eventually happens to the unserviceable is outside his purview.
For Hardi, CFCs are no consideration in his importation business and sales.

Mr Eric Nyefre, a waiter and a proud owner of a pre-owned fridge and television set says that his only reason for buying those pre-owned items was price. He explains that he could not afford to buy a new fridge and television set though he would have preferred to do so.

While a used table-top fridge goes for about GH¢150, the new one sells for about GH¢ 400.
The high energy consumption of most of these items coupled with their relatively shorter lifespan makes these second-hand goods not cost-effective in the long term.

The government, through Ghana’s Energy Commission, the regulator of the energy sector recently announced that from January 1, 2013, it will completely ban used refrigerators and air-conditioners from coming into the country.
The Executive Secretary of the Energy Commission, Dr. Alfred Ofosu Ahenkorah, who made the announcement said used television sets and electric irons would also be banned from the country. For the Energy Commission, its concern is electronic waste and high energy consumption by some of these used electronic gadgets.

Though there are plans to ban these things in the future, what prevents us from making the ban effective now? We should not lose sight of the fact that the impact of these hazardous waste cannot be postponed till a later date and that is the more reason the sooner the ban and its enforcement, the better.

Apart from the health and environmental implications, it is also an eye sore to see disused fridges etc packed in front of shops along our roads.

Though there may be a few reasons justifying the importation of these things like the relative cheapness which has made it possible for most people within the low-income bracket to own their own TV sets and fridges, the overwhelming negative impact on our health and environment should inform our decision.

To the importer, once he is making the big bucks, he might not be bothered about environmental and health issues but that is why governments exist to provide protection and security for the citizenry. And this includes protection from avoidable diseases and a sound and healthy environment.

We may be a gateway but that does not mean we should be a dumping ground. We should close our gates to garbage, especially those that will eventually kill us.

Writer’s e-mail: aamakai@hotmail.com