Gyankromah Akufo-Addo, the Director of the Creative Arts Council has led a team of visual artists to paint graffiti across Accra to “beautify “the capital city, while the city gets increasingly engulfed in filth from poor sanitation.
According to Ms. Akufo-Addo, who is incidentally the daughter of President Akufo Addo, the new initiative dubbed “Art for All” is a beautification project of the city of Accra.
“We want to beautify the city with beautiful works of art…it gives a ripple effect with people within Ghana and Accra not to defecate in public spaces and to cherish what they have,” Ms Akufo Addo stated.
The first phase of the project was started at the Ako-Adjei Interchange which forms part of the ceremonial roads of Accra and it is far cut out from the stark reality of damning sanitation situation across Accra.
It is unclear how much is being expended on this curious project with has received mixed reactions from Ghanaians on social media.
Critics have questioned the effectiveness of this initiative in substituting for the failure of the Akufo Addo administration in solving the sanitation problem in the capital city as promised on the campaign trail.
Several millions of dollars have been allocated to clean up the city, yet, heaps of rubbish, open defecation in drains and the beaches have gone on unabated.
In January 2020, the Coalition of NGOs In Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) unequivocally stated that Ghana has failed to meet its sanitation targets as captured in the Vision 2020 document.
According to official data, only 21% of the entire population of Ghana have access to conventional toilet facilities, with about 22% of the population forced to defecate openly.
Majority of these problems are experienced in urban areas, particularly in cities such as Accra.
In terms of solid waste, Ghana generates about five million tons annually. Out of this, about one million tons are made up of plastic. Only 2% of this plastic waste are recycled.