Blog 10- Still a Tragedy in Ghana- Waste Disposal in Ghana

Ghana’s developing country has a human waste disposal problem that it continues to ignore. Ghana operates below the recommended standards of sanitary practice. In the Volta region of Ghana, Akatsi’s District Assembly, the governing body who are supposed to be following mandates, has contracted with laborers to empty full pit latrines in the city, where they dig boreholes right next to the latrines and empty the contents into the borehole. The laborers, in this article had found a human skull in one of Akatsi’s public toilets. The incident only deepens the concern of the practices of Ghana’s waste disposal, which allows the transfer of waste (liquids and fecal matter) from one place to the next. Akatsi lacks a formal structure of sewage treatment. It is unregulated by the government and the policies that are in place is ignored by government officials like Akatsi’s District Assembly.  If the land where this practice of digging a new hole for the latrine sewage is used for other purposes in the future, the question is raised of what environmental damage is created to ecological health and human health when they dig it up once again? Unfortunately, the transferring process of emptying these latrines is practiced not only in the Volta region but throughout the undeveloped country of Ghana and is just one of many primitive methods of human waste disposal.

More disturbing is the practice in Ghana of waste disposal in its lakes and rivers. The Pra and Densu Rivers are poisoned by large amounts of mercury that is used in the illegal process of alluvial gold. Add insult with the “normal” activity of using the lakes such as Lake Bosumtwi, as a dumping sight and you have health and ecological disaster for inhabitants that use the water for domestic use. The inhabitants ingest this poisoned, mercury laden water, making people sick and spreading disease.

Many areas of Ghana are in crisis due to the unregulated dumping practices in the country.  In the Fosu Lagoon in Cape Coast, Central region, “a group of scientists were actually able to “walk” on the lagoon due to the extremely solid state of this lagoon caused by amazingly high levels of pollution.” The thick pollution in this lagoon has been created from the waste from a mechanical shop and piggery in the area of the lagoon. Other examples of highly polluted areas of Ghana include the Essipuon Stadium in the western region of Ghana that has a stench due to the dumping of liquid and solid waste. Also, in the New Takoradi region of Ghana, the sea has turned a different color from all the pollution. The entire Gulf of Guinea threatens the Atlantic Ocean.

Government authorities need to commit to efforts to solve the waste problems of Ghana by enforcing the regulations it imposes for violators. The country is facing ecological disaster if it continues its complacent stance on the issue. Ghana’s inhabitants also are complacent about the dumping in the lakes and rivers in their country. They see dumping as a normal part of life and their domestic lives continue even when the water is contaminated with waste from humans and animals. They cook, bathe and drink the polluted waters. There will need to be a huge push to educate about indiscriminate disposal of waste and how the dumping spreads disease. The inhabitants need to see the benefits to not only the environment but also to their health.

Ghana is a developing country. The poor state of Ghana’s solid waste management system has been compounded by rapid urbanization. Modernizing the infrastructure cannot come fast enough. The country is struggling to keep up with its own growth. A country, like Ghana, is in need of clean potable water, a reliable system of electric power, highways, and a system of waste disposal to sustain its country’s rapid urbanization. To step into the modern industrial world, Ghana will need money and capital to invest in its future. It will need help from the developed industrial countries to identifying the improvements needed on existing dumpsites, the implementation of new technology and the cleanup of the polluted waterways of Ghana.

Thu, Apr 18th, 2013

By Daily Guide Ghana

baaba.lou@gmail.com

By Baaba Eshun-Wilson

http://www.spyghana.com/still-a-tragedy-in-ghana-waste-disposal-in-ghana/

Blog 9- Pollution

Hong Kong's light pollution 'worst in the world'

Light pollution occurs when artificial light intrudes on the nighttime setting. The modern mega-city of Hong Kong, with its dense population, is the world’s worst city for light pollution, says a study from Hong Kong University. The pollution is created from the blaring neon flood lights and billboards of advertising around Hong Kong. The result is that the lights block the night-time starry sky. The worst lights seem to be those that are shot straight into the sky for a dramatic effect. The government has no regulations for this lighting like in other parts of the world because the lights are considered necessary for public safety. The ecological impact that results from the wasteful light pollution has been ecologically damaging to migratory birds and nocturnal animals that depend on light to regulate their lives. The lights of Hong Kong, measure 1000 times international norms. The glare is made worse due to the high levels of air pollution in Hong Kong. The pollution has tiny particles and these particles reflect the glaring light back into our eyes. Add 200 cloudy nights, and there are few places around Hong Kong where you can see the stars at night.

Hong Kong is not the only megacity on earth that has major light pollution problems. Light pollution is a global phenomenon. Look at New York, London, Moscow, Madrid and all the mega-cities in the world. You can see the different images of light pollution just by looking at a Google earth map. When you compare the night sky of the 1950’s to those of now, it is striking how different the sky of 60 years ago looks from today’s glaring sky of light pollution. All of the mega-cities have increased their use of lighting ten-fold. The increased lighting globally has blocked many city skies and this means it has blocked the beauty of the cosmos. This waste of energy contributes to our global warming and produces high energy bills. The light pollution has an adverse effect on the health of animals, plants, humans and the environment. In humans, light pollution can interfere with natural circadian rhythms by preventing the production of melatonin, the chemical that regulates sleep patterns. Low melatonin levels have been linked to increased cancer risks. Night lights disorient hatching sea turtles, migrating birds and nocturnal animals. Lights attract insects, which may in turn interfere with pollination of nocturnal flowers. Light pollution negatively effects our entire global environment.

The night sky in the country looks remarkably different than the sky view near a city. More stars are visible and brighter, and in some remote areas, the Milky Way galaxy extends across the sky from east to west. Sky glow, however is the orange light that we get at night above a town or city that even interferes with how we see the sky at night. Sky glow occurs when artificial light which shines upwards, reflects off clouds and atmospheric particles such as dust and water, causing a ‘scattering’ effect. Although light in the right place, makes urban areas safer and more pleasant to be after dark, if not designed properly, it can also have negative effects. In the design of our global mega-cities, light pollution will need to be regulated and measured to ensure that our global environment is protected from light pollution’s adverse effects.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/21/world/asia/hong-kong-light-pollution

By Peter Shadbolt, CNN

updated 12:55 PM EDT, Thu March 21, 2013

Blog 8 Pollution

Study: Environmental Policies Matter for Growing Megacities

April 4, 2013

In the 1970’s, the U.S. was facing a dramatic growth in GDP (Gross Domestic product), urban population increases and a staggering number of vehicles on highways. This growth brought with it pollution that strained the environment’s fragile ecosystems and the health of the population. The U.S., however, faced the problem and decreased the impact of vehicle emissions in their cities with the Clean Air Act. It requires catalytic converters that reduce tailpipe emissions to be on all vehicles, cars, trucks and buses. In the 1990’s the Clean Air Act was taken further by addressing nitrate and sulfate rain, components of acid rain. Over the past 30 years, since the U.S. Clean Air Act, regulations have dramatically reduced acid rain in the U.S., Europe, Japan and South Korea. In contrast, megacities like those in fast- growing East Asia that have no regulation, lax antipollution rules and lack of enforcement, show a dramatic rise in acid rain. The effects of this acid rain will continue to pollute lakes, rivers, soils and wetlands in these unregulated megacities if something is not done.

Models have been studied to measure the differences in a regulated megacity and one that is not regulated.  As Rao stated, “Our analysis of wet deposition (acid rain) data provides compelling evidence that clean-air policies and enforcement of environmental regulations are profoundly important. Researchers now monitor sites in the U.S. and in Asian cities to collect informative data to measure products of fossil fuel combustion, the nitrates and sulfate emitted by our cars, trucks and buses.

Megacities, like East Asia are dealing with the effects of rapid urban development, increasing emissions from vehicles and acid rain, just like the U.S. was dealing with in the 1970’s with it mass industrialization. Beijing and New Delhi, the emerging industrial megacities will have to address its rapid expansion in the near future that will increase the level of pollution and impact on the environment. Focus will eventually be on Sub-Saharan Africa where industrialization will reach its cities and where increasing economic development will be.

The negative impact of megacities on the environment is directly related to the regulatory controls that are in place to lessen the effects of our growing population and urbanization. The earth’s megacities, created from rapid mass industrialization continue to have staggering environmental impact on the planet’s ecological health. Modern Industrialized Nations, like the U.S. create mass pollution and must be proactive in solving environmental problems created from industry. What matters is the regulation of industry, enforcement of these regulations and finding engineering solutions for all the problems that come with rapid industrialization. The Emerging Industrialized nations will then be able to cope with the environmental problems that develop with megacities.

http://greenbuildingelements.com/2013/04/04/study-environmental-policies-matter-for-growing-megacities/   

Blog 7- Pollution

The article, “The 10 Most Radioactive Places on Earth”, brings to the forefront the threat that nuclear radiation and toxic waste has in destroying lands and waters across the globe. The first detonation of the “Fat Man” atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the US set the world in motion for nuclear disasters. The horrible truth was realizing that there was a weapon capable of wiping out whole cities and people off of the earth. What was left in its wake was seared land, contaminated waters, death and sickness for people and the children of Japan. The bomb has never been used since then but our Cold War era weapon’s production made from plutonium, has left us with toxic waste dumps of radioactive waste, many already contaminating our water supply, threatening cities, people, wildlife and the earth itself. This is not about missile attacks and nuclear bomb threats from other countries during the Cold War era anymore, but the danger of contaminated nuclear sites left in its wake, those in our own backyard and backyards across the entire earth.

The 10 listed are some of the worst sites of toxic and radioactive waste in the world:

10. Hanford, USA, located in Washington is what is left from the US atomic bomb project that manufactured plutonium for the first nuclear bomb and “Fat Man” dropped on Nagasaki. The site supplied 60,000 nuclear weapons during the Cold War era. It is now decommissioned, however it is the most contaminated site in the US.

9. The Mediterranean is suspected of being a dumping ground for ships loaded with toxic and radioactive waste. It is believed that the Italian Mafia is charging for the illegal activity and pocketing the profits. An Italian NGO believes there may have been 40 shiploads of this hazardous waste that have disappeared into the Mediterranean since 1994. If the barrels of this waste rust and break open, an environmental disaster will ensue in the sea.

8. The Somalian Coast had barrels of toxic and nuclear waste wash up on its shores during the 2004 tsunami. It is believed to have been dumped there by the illegal activity of the Italian Mafia back in the 1990’s. Not only did the barrels contain toxic nuclear material but also radioactive hospital waste.

7. The industrial complex of Mayak, Russia, in 1957, was the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents. Releasing an explosion of up to 100 tons of radioactive waste, the massive area is now contaminated. It was finally exposed in the 1990’s that the plant had been dumping waste into Lake Karachay, leading to the contamination of the water supply.

6. Sellafield, UK was a plutonium production facility for nuclear bombs and is now located in commercial territory. The facility has had 100’s of accidents and releases, on a daily basis, 800 million liters of contaminated waste into the Irish Sea and considered the most radioactive sea in the world.

5. Siberian Chemical Combine is another contaminated site in Russia and contains 40 years of nuclear waste. Liquid waste is stores in uncovered pools, have poorly maintained containers and underground storage that has the potential to leak into the groundwater. Accidents have led to plutonium going missing and some explosions have spread radiation.

4. The site in Polygon, Kazakhstan is where the Soviet Union tested its nuclear weapons for its atomic bomb projects of the Cold War Era. The site is a record holder for the area with the largest concentration of nuclear explosions in the world. The site closed in 1991 but the impact of radiation exposure is unknown.

3. Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan is listed as one of the top ten polluted sites on Earth by the 2006 Blacksmith Institutes report. The contamination comes from the mining for the materials needed in the processes they entail. The site has 36 dumps of uranium waste, an area prone to earthquakes that could release the toxic material into rivers and contaminating the water by hundreds of thousands of people.

2. Chernobyl, Ukraine is well known as one of the worst nuclear accidents and is still heavily contaminated.  The disastrous accident caused over 6 million people to be exposed to radiation and the deaths eventually are estimated to be from 4,000 to 93,000 people. The accident released 100 times more radiation than the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs.

1. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan was the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The incident caused meltdown of three of the six reactors, leaking radiation into the land and has been detected 200 miles offshore from the Fukushima plant.

It’ll take public consciousness, recognizing that there is a global problem due to nuclear pollution, before the focus will turn to cleaning up the mess we’ve all made in the quest for domination in the world. The ramifications are tremendous and will loom over us for generations. The danger is real. We must turn away from spending money on war and spend those billions and needed trillion of dollars on cleanup efforts across the entire Earth.

http://brainz.org/ten-most-radioactive-places-earth/

Blog 6- Pollution

The Power of Voice: Protesting Oil Sponsorship of the Arts

Posted: 04/03/2013 14:36

 The Southbank Centre in London is the largest single-run arts Centre in the world. On a recent Friday evening, a musical performance was hosted by the Shell Oil Company. During this event, ” The Shell Out Sounds” (SOS), a campaign activist group, disrupted the event using chants and slogans to protest the sponsorship of Shell Oil Company in the British arts. The purpose was to draw attention to the oil industry’s exploitation of land, resources, and people across the world and to shed light on the monetary connection between the corporate giant and London’s Southbank Centre.

Shell-out Sounds (SOS) flash-mobbed the audience during the Shell sponsored musical performance at London’s Southbank Centre. The chant sang their spiritual version of Down the River to Pray, describing the disastrous effects on communities by Shell’s operations. They concluded with the words, "Oh, Shell, not your name; No more oil, no more pain; Oh, Shell not your name; Art not in your name!". The Shell Oil Company is the biggest sponsor of the arts in the UK and SOS wants an end to this relationship. SOS speaks of how Shell is trying to become entwined with British cultural traditions by hosting these art functions. SOS states:

 Is this yet another way that large corporations are edging their way into British traditions? Does this relationship between oil giants and the arts impact British freedom of expression via creation? SOS argues that "corporate sponsorship, especially by oil companies whose livelihood depends on not moving forward from the outdated oil age, stifles and censors the arts".

Shell Out Sounds takes offense to oil industry giants like BP and Shell funding the arts with the dirty money earned in the exploitation of other countries. SOS wants to see action taken by the Southbank Centre to cut ties with Shell. The oil giant’s investment in the tar sands of Canada, fracking, recurrent oil spills in Nigeria and Shell’s controversial Artic drilling are all efforts by Shell to earn huge amounts of profit at the expense to land, resources and people.

One of these areas abused by Shell is in Nigeria. Human rights issues have been understated in the Niger Delta regions where Shell has, since the 1950’s created an ecological polluted disaster. A group in the early 1990’s, known as the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) were retaliated against for their nonviolent protest in Ogoniland that caused Shell to pull out of its operations in the region. The MOSOP was retaliated against by the government who raided villages and arrested the protest leaders, now known as the Ogoni 9.

Ken Saro-Wiwa, a popular author, TV producer and recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize for his work, was executed in 1995 due to his involvement in the MOSOP. Amnesty International had tried to have him released from prison to no avail. Ken Saro-Wiwa’s protest had been a plea to have Shell cease destroying the Ogoni way of life by polluting the lands that they farmed and devastating the Niger Delta with the many oil spills over the years. The industry was supposed to be for the good of the Ogoni people but out of 5000 jobs in the workforce that were promised, only 100 or less of the employed were Ogoni.  Shell had not only backed out of promises to the Ogoni people but had stripped their lands of resources by their operations.  

In January, this year, Shell was found guilty in a Dutch court of oil pollution in the Niger Delta. It will take decades to remedy the ecological and environmental pollution in the wake of its operations. Faced by 11,000 members of the Niger Delta Bodo community, Shell has admitted liability for two spills in the Bodo region.

The SOS’ chants become the voice for those who cannot speak up about the injustices of corporate oil giants like Shell. They are the voice for the Ogoni people whose protest over Shell’s unethical activities ended in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa. SOS "uses art to bring people together; uses music to tell stories of fractured, weeping communities; sings haunting harmonies to convey the disharmony that companies like Shell create”. By flash mobbing London’s Southbank Center, SOS hopes to be loud enough for executives of the Center to find other ways to monetarily sponsor the British arts in London and shed light on all of the unethical practices of the Shell Oil Company.

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Zion Lights is a writer and mother interested in ethics, attachment parenting, permaculture and green living. She is a regular contributor at One Green Planet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/zion-lights/shell-out-sounds-the-power-of-voice_b_2805482.html 

Blog 5 Pollution- Electronical Waste

E-waste, a growing concern for India!

In India, there is a growing concern over the unregulated framework for the disposal of massive amounts of Electronical Waste (E-Waste) that is accumulating at alarming rates in the trash dumps of India. Our modern technological advancements that impact and improve our quality of life come at a price. The cost to human health and the environment have huge implications for India. Today, new electronic products are rendered obsolete very rapidly creating an urgency to develop recycle and disposal systems to rid the country of the E-Waste pollution of the country.

Rapid technological advancement and ever increasing obsolescence rate of consumer electronics and electrical items has undoubtedly created the precarious situation. Our failure to devise nonhazardous ways of waste disposal was grimly highlighted during the Mayapuri radiation leak case in early 2010. The incident where a person lost his life due to exposure to Cobalt-60 at Mayapuri scrapyard in West Delhi should have ideally served as a wake-up call for our authorities towards the unmonitored mounting quantity of hazardous waste including E-waste…

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab are among the top ten states generating about 70 per cent of the total E-waste in India. These are the areas that information needs to be communicated on how to dispose of electronics to lessen the impact on the environment. These are the areas, too that the recycle and disposal systems development should be focused on because the mounting piles of cellphones and electronics is not letting up or going away.

The extent of this growing crisis for both India and China can be seen by looking towards the prediction for the year 2020:

According to a report named “E-waste in India” by Rajya Sabha Secretariat, E-waste from old computers would jump by 400 per cent on 2007 levels in China and by 500 per cent in India by 2020. In addition, E-waste from discarded mobile phones would be about seven times higher than 2007 levels and, in India, 18 times higher by 2020.

Mere enactment of laws is not enough if there is no enforcement. The E-waste Management and Handling Rules put the responsibility of e-waste management needs to be placed on the manufacturers or brands of these products through India’s principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Another problem that needs to be addressed is compliance from the producers.

There are no monitoring systems or evaluation mechanisms in place to regulate the toxic hazardous waste and other waste from electric products and it will continue to be hazardous to human health and the environment. A safe, non-hazardous disposal and recycle system for these electronics needs to be put in place to keep the ecological health of India safe and laws need to be enforced. Finally, the general public’s lack of awareness on this issue needs to be addressed.

Article by: Rashi Aditi Ghosh / Zee Research Group / Delhi

 http://zeenews.india.com/exclusive/e-waste-a-growing-concern-for-india_6082.html