A government basic school in Bolgatanga, Rashadiya Islamic Primary School, is currently closed and empty.
The indefinite closure took effect after its head-teacher, Alberta Bandua, died from what the Ghana Education Service (GES) strongly suspects is linked to inhalation of a plume of smoke from an overflowing community waste container placed near the school’s half-fenced premises.
After the head-teacher’s death, the Bolgatanga Municipal Education Office wrote a letter to stakeholders. In it, the GES says she repeatedly complained about the waste situation at the school “until her untimely demise”.
Waste is seriously affecting thousands of lives in the Upper East regional capital on the quiet, and it is gradually killing thousands nationwide.
According to the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Bolgatanga recorded 23,799 typhoid cases in 2024 alone as a result of insanitary practices, including improper disposal of waste. The situation has not changed today.
The teachers of the affected school have been transferred, and the schoolchildren have been placed in other schools in the municipality.
See more revelations here in a feature film titled: Killed by Waste.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
