The health of students of Achimota School in Accra is under threat as its entire sewerage system is collapsed forcing human excreta and other hazardous materials to gush out through chambers on campus.
Since the emergence of the problem some few months ago, Students have had to spend two days out of the five studying days to tidy up the campus, a situation which has put serious strain on the school's budget as it keeps buying disinfectants and other materials to facilitate the exercise.
A tour over the school showed the severity of the problem; the stench and sight of raw sewage emanating from a broken central sewage processing system.
Human excreta and raw sewage from the dormitories which was to pass through the underground sewerage had spilled into the open on campus posing health danger to students, police officers stationed there and a hospital which is on the campus.
A cursory look at the periphery of the campus shows the development of sprawling neighbourhoods made up of state of the art mansions which have undoubtedly contributed to the collapse of the underground sewerage network.
Most of these structures are said to belong to well-connected persons in society, which have red labelled inscriptions reading: 'Stop work,
Produce permit' have encroached on the school's land covering about one-third of it.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, after a Ministry of Information sponsored media tour of the campus to assess the situation on Thursday, Mrs. Beatrice Tsotso Adom, Headmistress of the School, appealed to the government to come to its aid.
Mrs. Adom said the problem required urgent attention because the school was a national heritage having trained leaders such former Presidents Nkrumah, Akufo Addo, Rawlings, and Presidents Atta Mills and Mugabe of Zimbabwe among others.
Showing documents proving that the land was bought for 4.000 pounds in 1927, she refuted claims by encroachers that the school only acquired the land but did not buy it.
She said the encroachers had also been pilfering the School's property and properties of staff.