PERSISTENT “CHOLERIZATION” OF METROPOLITAN ACCRA, GHANA: DIGGING INTO THE FACTS

Abstract

This paper examines the risk factors responsible for the 2014 cholera epidemic in Accra, Ghana’s primate city which affected 30,000 people and claimed over 200 lives in five months (May to September). Drawing on insights from a wide range of sources, we observed that laxity in potable water provision and sanitation services, coupled with erroneous socio-cultural beliefs were at the heights among the risk factors but have tended to be viewed within a narrow analytical frame. The most deprived and inadequately housed, and the indigenous communities disproportionately exemplified these challenges. In our view, this situation demonstrates how ineffective and insufficiently attentive environmental governance has perpetuated the inequality in spatial patterns of vulnerability and health risks facing humanity. We advocate the need for a broad-spectrum environmental policy that in cooperates intensive public health education that can addresses the erroneous beliefs in the disease epidemiology.