The environmental conditions at the University of Ghana have deteriorated due to the ongoing strike by the Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU). The main campus, in particular, is overflowing with full dustbins and scattered rubbish due to the neglect.
The hygiene situation is worsening, evidently in unclean washrooms across the campus in the various lecture halls, which have remained unattended for approximately two weeks.
TEWU embarked on a nationwide industrial action indefinitely on Monday, January 22, 2023 after government failed to restore payments of agreed allowances and non-payment of Tier-2 pension contribution that is outstanding for about nine (9) months.
On Radio Univers’ morning show, Campus Exclusive (CampEx), the most authoritative students’ morning show in the country, the show’s production team called on the University of Ghana Students Representative Council (UGSRC) and Junior Common Room (JCR) executives to put measures in place to tackle the insanitary conditions on its campus.
Speaking on behalf of the team, the host of the CampEx show, Collins Frimpong, advocated for the mobilization of students to clean the environment. According to Collins, the leaders are representatives of the students who have been elected to serve their interest.
“We cannot continue to live in a dirty environment so Management should do something about it, but the immediate people that are suffering from this are the students… We have students’ representative council (UGSRC) and JCR who are representing students at various levels.”
Collins noted that unhealthy environmental conditions pose a harmful threat to the health of the students and the leaders must act accordingly.
“Until Management and government finds a solution, we are calling on the UGSRC President and JCR to organize students to clean the environment ourselves on weekends. We cannot continue to stay in this condition until government agrees with the unions to call of the strike. Our health is at risk.”
Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have ranked the University’s air quality as unhealthy in the last 2 weeks. EPA’s air quality index reached 274 on February 4, 2024 as at 10 AM.
Office of the Disease Prevention and Health Promotion reports about 1.2 million people around the world die yearly because they live or work in unhealthy environments. A World Health Organization (WHO) study revealed that more than 12.5 million global deaths can be attributed to unhealthy environment on an annual basis. Environmental pollutants can cause health problems like respiratory diseases, heart disease, diarrhea and some types of cancers.
