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Prosperity Plagues Accra, Ghana
Ghana is a country on the west coast of Africa with 26 million. Prosperity has given Accra, its capital, many things sought after. The country was been living in a boom sphere since 2000 and by 2011, it was the most successful African country. But, the chaos it has created remains. Electrical outages occur daily for eight hours because the generators used need to be updated and have larger capacities. There are thousands that siphon off electricity to avoid paying for it. Water is also scarce as more people arrive in Ghana from other African nations. Traffic jams last hours because the streets were not built for so many cars because they were not affordable. But between 2006-11, retail spending there doubled as a new middle class emerged. Accra built huge cineplexes, cafes, malls, supermarkets and car dealerships to cater to the new middle class.
One of the real problems it now faces as a result are plastic garbage bags. As funny as it sounds, there are so many of them being discarded in the trash, they have become a serious problem for waste water management. They are clogging of the filters and river banks. Most of the trash tossed out involves plastic bags. Like many cities in the USA, plastic bags have been banned in stores. In Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, they are also banned. Parts of the main river in Ghana have become so polluted it is called, Sodom and Gomorrah. Filled with trash, plastic, and everything else, the sludge eventually reaches the gate and backs up. The gate on the river prevents it from entering into the ocean and along the beaches Ghana is well known for. The sludge is cleared from the gate every three days using a huge crane and a small army of men.
Prosperity has created an environmental mess that Ghana is not equipped to deal with.