Oblogo medical centre abandoned
A medical centre meant to address the health needs of the people of Oblogo and surrounding communities in the Ga South municipality has become a haven for squatters, having been abandoned by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for about six years now.
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Oblogo is located a kilometre off the Accra-Winneba road, on the way to Weija in the Greater Accra Region.
The AMA as part of the deal to dump solid waste in that community years back promised the residents a clinic, a market and a tarred road.
Today, the market has allegedly been sold by the then Oblogo Chief, Nii Kwaku Bibini, while the clinic which was completed, painted and provided with some medical facilities has remained a white elephant.
It is not clear how much it cost the AMA to build the clinic but its non-functioning status is having a toll on the people of Oblogo as they have to seek medical care elsewhere.
The medical centre is surrounded by weeds, and garbage has piled up in front of it. The net of the windows are dirty and torn, obviously depicting an abandoned structure.
Some of the people the Daily Graphic spoke to did not understand why such a facility had been left unused for so long.
“I have been selling here for about four years now and this clinic has never been operational,” Maama Abena, a food vendor close to the clinic, told the Daily Graphic.
The stench, flies and the generally insanitary conditions has made it difficult for people to willingly accept such facilities in their backyards, and so the AMA promised those facilities, including the clinic, as part of the agreement with the then chief, to site the landfill in their community.
When this reporter visited the clinic last Monday, she met some of the occupants, including one Festus who said that the place was being occupied by a relation of the deceased chief of the town, Nii Bibini III, and his friend. He was, however, not available to make any comment.
At one point, the Oblogo Landfill was used as the main receptacle for Accra’s solid waste for six years. Dumping started in the year 2000. Accra generates about 2,500 tonnes of waste out of which 60 per cent, about 1,500, is collected.
According to Dr John Yabani, the Tema Metropolitan Health Director, who was then the Accra Metropolitan Health Director, the AMA completed its work and handed over the facility to the Ga South Municipal Assembly to manage.
According to him, encroachment on part of the land did not allow the assembly to complete the works, which included providing a medical staff bungalow and fencing the centre.
He stated that once the AMA was no longer dumping at the place, it would be expedient on the part of the Ga South Municipal Assembly to ensure that the facility was used for the benefit of the people.
Story: Naa Lamiley Bentil