AN OUTLOOK ON SLUMS AND HUMAN HEALTH.

 
It has been revealed that over 48 per cent of Ghanaians living in Accra, the capital city of Ghana can be located living in slums or better still, poorly laid out settlements. What this means is that many a Ghanaian either share a room with four or more people. What this also means is the fact that accommodation remains a drain to many- Squatting therefore remains a cold solace.

Overcrowding, lack of portable water, electricity and community development can be seen as the very description to a slum settlement. But what about the health implications?

Coastal Slum in Jamestown

A stroll down the inns of the coastal slums of Jamestown in Accra greets you with a breeze of sweaty pungent odour and filth from tightly non spacious rooms and greasy open gutters. For once you will tend to think you are on a dump site but a closer realisation startles you of your real location.

A well laid out settlement
 

The sheer prevalence in premature deaths of all natures and form; the clear scenes of teenage pregnancies; the usual adaptation to filth and the contagious culture of idleness are but some of the health implications slum settlements tend to have on settlers.

Although much effort is being made to quell the ravaging effect on the expansion of slums across the regional capitals especially within the coastal plains of Accra, it is veritably clear that this phenomena forever reveals the huge health gap between the many a poor and the little a rich.

Yes the battle for healthy living and complete fitness can be won through healthy eating and exercising. But what happens when the very roof one lies under; not to talk of his environment is short of a consciousness to human dignity.
Spacious housing alone reveals the health gap between the rich and poor in urban Ghana.