Climate in west Africa-An over view

For all persons planning a trip to west Africa either in the near or distant future, knowing when the rainy season (or wet season) and the dry season falls, helps determine the best time to go.  It is important to know that in some parts of this region, the heat during the rainy season is worse because of the added discomfort of humidity. This is especially the case in costal areas such as the southern parts of Ghana, Togo and Ivory Coast. For the most part, the weather in West Africa is not really predictable with a great degree of certainty and rains do fail causing untold hardships to millions of subsistence farmers in the region.

            In general, it is hot year round in West Africa with an average temperature hovering around 85 Fahrenheit (30 celsius) during the day. The dry season in West Africa generally falls around the end of October –March. Closer to the coast it is always a little more humid even in the dry months, but there are fewer mosquitos around and unpaved roads are passable. Given that most visitors come to West Africa to enjoy its beaches and cultures, the dry season is a good time to visit. This is because at this the issue of mosquitoes is less of a problem and the weather is appropriate enough to enhance a full enjoyment of the beaches. However, it can sometimes get extremely hot during this time, especially at the end of the dry season, i.e. in March/April.

            Another condition that could potentially be a problem to visitors who might be new to that kind of weather is the harmattan. The harmattan is a weather condition, which is a major part of the dry season. Typically, the harmattan is characterized by very dry atmosphere, with strong winds carrying lots of dust and sand in the air. Harmattan is certainly not a good period for photo-shoots. The hardest hit areas by the harmattan are usually the northern parts of the sub-region, such as the northern parts of Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ivory Coast, Togo and some parts of Nigeria.       

            The rainy season in West Africa generally falls from the end of April - July on the coastal areas with a second shorter rainy season in September/October. The rains don't last all day and are much enjoyed when they fall. Water shortages are common in this region, so rainwater is a blessing especially in cities on the coast. Further inland toward the desert, there's one rainy season and it tends to fall from July - September. This is the best time to go to countries like Mali, as temperatures cool down a little and rivers become more navigable. However, A major problem associated with the rainy season is mosquitoes. The rainy season creates perfect breeding conditions for mosquitoes, especially in cities area areas with poor drainage systems and where little ponds of water is found days or even weeks after a downpour. Thus foreigners travelling to West Africa in the rainy season might consider staying in the northern parts because the mosquito-problem is quite minimal in such areas.

Discovery of “liquid black gold” (oil) and Ghana’s Development

Since her independence in 1957, it has being the policy of every government of Ghana to explore her hydrocarbon deposits. Historically, exploration for oil and gas reserves in Ghana had been very limited due to the high risk nature of its terrain and low oil price environment in 2004 when the Kosmos Energy, a premier international oil and gas exploration and production company focused on the frontier with its primary areas of operation being underexplored regions along the Atlantic Margin, made initial contact with Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. Between 1898 to the late nineties an estimated hundred exploration wells had been drilled in Ghana with no significant discovery except for the Saltpond (a coastal town in the central region of Ghana) oil find in 1970.

            Today Ghana has discovered oil in commercial quantities its central region in three Points near Axim (a town on the west coast of Ghana). Although Ghanaians are excited about this oil discovery, some sections of Ghanaians are skeptical that the country may be plunged into the resource curse syndrome. This is because, countries that have a large share of natural resource exports in GDP have a much worse growth performance than those that are less reliant on natural resources. Nevertheless, the experiences of countries such as Norway, Botswana, Thailand, and Malaysia give hope that the natural resource curse can be avoided if the quality of institutions as well as policy is strong before extraction begins. Also, given the extensive opportunities that the country has to learn from

the broad experiences of oil-rich economies, there is ample opportunity to derive significant benefits from the discovery. This however, is contrary to other held views that institutions in Africa are too weak to manage properly the significant and varied interests that evolve from the development of an oil industry or any extractive industry. Numerous poor examples have often been cited to support these views, and the most recurring ones being the situations in Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon. Thus, history of natural resource exploitation and management in Africa is certainly not a very positive one. Besides, Ghana’s own history with the extractive industries is quite contentious and this has led to debates about whether Ghana has been able to effectively apply the revenue from various extractive industries to finance its development agenda. This obviously, remains a question to be addressed properly with good research. This is especially so in view of the considerable deterioration in prominent mining communities in Ghana such as Obuasi, Prestea, Bogosu to mention but a few. These are often referred as the mining curse.

            The question of whether Ghana is properly positioned to manage the new oil boom remains topical both on the policy front and in the public discourse. The extent to which civil society groups and academics can contribute in harnessing ideas to ensure effective administration and management of the oil resources is critical. What specific policy measures and legislative instruments are required to engender transparency and accountability in the application of oil revenues, without unduly undermining private investment interests in the new sector? And, what could be a reasonable expectation about the likely benefits of the oil discovery to the Ghanaian people, particularly in the context of poverty reduction and sustained local development. How will Ghana manage the oil revenue to help transform the structure of the Ghanaian economy? How will Ghana manage the likely environmental effects? How will Ghana manage the windfall to avoid potential `Dutch Disease effects? These key questions certainly open they way for further research.

Waste Management in Ghana

Like in many other African countries, Ghana has a major difficulty in managing domestic and industrial waste in whatever form it may take. This is commonly an issue in big cities especially, where the population is great. Unlike cities in the developed world like in America and Europe and other places, the cities in Ghana are setup differently. These ranges from the way settlements are constructed to the way markets and businesses are setup. And the way these cities are set up and run contribute to serious waste management challenges. For instance most of the markets in Ghana are open-air markets where people sit under tress, canopies, giant umbrellas and other forms of shades to do business (mostly trade in ). More often than not waste management facilities like trash bins, toilet and urinary facilities in these market are either not available or in a bad state for use. Faced with situations as this, people resort to indiscriminate ways of disposing off waste.

            Other factor that contributes to making waste management an issue in Ghana is the increase usage of plastic materials. In Ghana distilled water is sold in sachets popularly known as  “pure water” consumed mostly at home, on the streets and at work are hawked on the streets.  It turns out that a lot of the empty plastic bags that are left after the water in them is consumed find their way in the gutters and bushes along the streets. Drainage problems are created by lots of liquid and solid wastes trapped in gutters and pits and one common resultant effect is frequent flooding that takes lives and livelihoods.

The situation described above presents a small picture of a big situation that cannot really be discussed in great detail, at least not for the purpose this discussion.

            As expected, households do their best to keep their houses clean but not the streets. In this way, most households put all their waste together and deposit them at small satellite locations. This is then collected by waste collection contractors and dumped at the main disposal sites which are normally abandoned sand and stone quarries, without any treatment, covering or adequate effluent management plans.

The result is sites with bad odour, breeding grounds for disease carrying flies and bacteria, and serving as sources of pollution to adjacent and underground water bodies. The sites become methane-producing sources and are environmentally unfriendly because the methane produced is allowed to dissipate directly into the environment adding to the build up of Green House Gases (GHG’s).

            Several governments have tried to come up with strategies to manage waste in the country and some of the best waste management practices adopted so far include the production of biogas from human liquid waste. Biogas consists of methane and CO₂, which are the result of an anaerobic fermentation process, during which all disease causing bacteria are destroyed. The gas produced is either be used for power production or other localized applications. Secondly, the establishment of plants to recycle plastic waste has over the last few years helped reduced the amount of plastic thrown on the streets. Waste plastic bags are collected by people heaped in large quantities weighed and sold to the few recycle companies in the country.

            With these measures already put in place to arrest this problem of waste management, I put forward the following more suggestions to help further tackle the problem. First of all, Ghana government should show commitment in putting in place appropriate mechanisms and infrastructure for the proper treatment and disposal of waste. Household and industries should be encouraged and educated to get ready to absorb the cost of proper waste disposal.  Regulatory institutions should also enforce legislature on waste preparation, treatment and disposal.

Causes of Bushfires in Ghana

 

Picture of a bushfire in Ghana

Ghana, a former British colony located at the west coast of West Africa has a land surface of about 23.9 million squared kilometers. For many decades now, the issue of bush fires in Ghana especially in its northern part (the savanna area) has been a major issue of concern. The effects of bushfire on the livelihoods and on the ecosystem in Ghana have increasing become damaging over the years.

It turns out that the incidence of

bushfires is seasonal. There are two main seasons in Ghana: the first is the rainy season, which starts from May and ends in October, and the Dry season, which runs from November to March.  The dry season in Ghana is sometimes referred to as the “hammattan” season. Almost 100% of bushfires in the country are recorded in the dry season.  The hammattan season is one that usually comes with very dry atmosphere, strong dry winds moving at about 50miles per hour with a lot of dust in the air and also comes with lots of sunshine. The conditions during the dry season usually leave the vegetation very dry.  It might be quite clear to the reader at this point that the hammattan season is one that supports burning of any kind especially grass lands. In this next section below, I shall proceed to discuss briefly, some of the main causes of bush fires in Ghana and end with a few suggestions to combat them.

            The causes of bush fires during the hammattan can be traced to a lot of sources. Majority of these fires occur in the rural communities and are largely caused by the activities of human beings. These range from farming practices, to hunting activities, honey harvesting accidents, charcoal burning accidents, burning by herds men etc.

            Burning is embedded in the cultural values and traditional farming systems of most rural farmers in Ghana. In preparing land for farming, which occurs at the end of March, most farmers clear and gather rubbish on their farms from previous year’s harvests and burn them and quite often these land preparation process result in bush fires. Secondly, at the beginning of the dry season also, cattle herders often start fires to stimulate the growth of young shoots. According to these herders, the growth of young offshoots is more palatable and contains more nutrients.

            Another practice that potentially often starts off a bushfire is hunting with naked fire.  Some rural folks hunt for rats, rabbits and other bush meat that live in holes beneath the ground by trying to smoke them out. A lot of the time they fail to put out their fires, which result in bush fires.  

            Further more, a great deal of bush fires has also been caused by wild honey harvesting activities. In rural Ghana, wild honey is harvested during the night using naked fire. In this way, folks try to burn out bees from the hive so as to collect the honey. Out of negligence, some of them sometimes fail to put out the fires when they are done, and potentially cause bushfires.

            Last but not the least charcoal burning has also been one of the main causes of bushfires in Ghana over the years. Charcoal is a domestic fuel that is used mostly for cooking. The process of producing charcoal requires burning logs and tree stamps and putting the fire out right before they burn out completely so as to collect the incomplete substance called charcoal. A lot of the charcoal burning process usually ends up with a bushfire.

            To tackle the problem of these bushfires, the following proposed solutions could be helpful. First of all there should be mass public education on bush fire prevention measures. The formation of bushfire clubs in schools tasked with championing the fight against bush fires could also be a positive measure to a better crusade against bush fires. Finally, there should be tougher punishments or charges for culprits of bushfires.