Dark Tourism in Ghana: A Pathology of Consumer Protection

By Jean Lukaz MIH, MTS

Yesterday a family of nine was kaput from eating contaminated food. Well, call it food poisoning, suicide, homicide, or consumercide, the culprit this time was food that was injurious to health and unfit for consumption and the victims are already dead.

When consumers die from food poisoning, the culprits go free...it is a dog’s world. Anytime the cause of death is food-centered, authorities in Ghana seem to play a certain kind of music reminiscent of the world of ‘let the dead bury their dead’…life is so cheap, who cares? All deaths from food poisoning are treated as if they are cases of cholera: the cause is in the corpse. Like Thomas Hobbes observed on the effects of rationalization, “

men have undertaken to kill their kings… provided before he do it he call him tyrant. For they say not regicide, that is, killing of a king, but tyrannicide, that is, killing of a tyrant, is lawful.” [LEVIATHAN, XXIX].

School children die from food poisoning and the traceable food vendor is back the next day to sell and kill more kids: business as usual. It is much less disconcerting to take credit for having a reducing balance formula for number of deaths caused by food poisoning as the years go by in order to show how we are improving.

In a country, where imported vehicles that have been declared not road worthy in the originating countries, after being involved in motor accidents, are a luxury and are free from legal encumbrances, deaths from motor accidents caused by defective vehicles bearing tested and passed license plates instead of ‘DV’ number plates do not receive much attention. Grim and gory photographs of motor accident deaths are a big sell for newspapers because we have grown to become thana-tourists of our bereaved existence.

Just stand by the roadside each morning and watch soon-to-happen disasters: school children being transported in smoking and decrepit buses like bags of rice packed on top of each other destined for quasi-luxury private schools and ask yourself who really do not care…PARENTS! And they will blame the government for lack of regulation when the former have got brains, eyes and two feet to vote with.

Do we have to go far? Presidential campaigners fall through a constructed platform right in camera and they become a laughing stock. See who’s laughing out loud? The contractor! Party goers die from food poisoning and it is ungrateful to take on the irresponsible host for sending you to your grave earlier than you pretended. When you go unlucky with fake medicines, it was a clinical trial gone badly and that makes it legally sound as a dose for those who need to cleanse their consciences from cognitive dissonance.

A case of CAVEAT EMPTOR --let the buyer beware—consumers in Ghana have long remained pawns on the chessboard of Consumer Protection.

Pathology is a branch of medical science that studies the causes and nature and effects of diseases including evidence of mentally disturbed conditions but this consumer disease does not need be diagnosed by autopsy since the causes of death are not in the corpse but are rather staring in our faces daily. Thanatology, the branch of science that studies death has become our social diet.

And as if we love the dead more than the living, there always seems to be more money to be made through funerals than through christenings, even if there is no insurance money to be claimed. This is forensic evidence that our nation Ghana has gone pathologically mad again…only short footbridges to cross from gastronomy to pathology to thanatology and we are the new living tourists seeking thrills from the dead.

Black Plastic, the Devil and Consumer Issues

By Jean Lukaz MIH

At a recent consumer meeting of The Consumer Partnership (The COP), issues were raised concerning the colour black being used in the production of plastic bags, bowls, buckets, etc and their implications as to the quality of the materials used and also issues not necessarilly technical but regarding the spiritual connotations of the colour black. It must be noted that black plastics are usually the product of recycled waste and by implication all black plasticware must not be used for food storage, food production, food transfer or food consumption.
Black plastic bags in Ghana are usually referred to as “Ewiase ye sum” meaning ‘It’s a dark world’ and connoting all that is concealed by the colour black and by implication inside the bag.

Technically, test reports from the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) indicate that the testing laboratory automatically does not check for the quality of black platic bags, black plastic bowls, black plastic buckets and black plastic waste bins [now being used by Ghanaian consumers to store water] in relation to their use for food for human consumption unless the description of the product categorically indicates that they are going to be used for food storage, food preparation, food transfer or food consumption purposes. This is because they are by default not meant to be used for food purposes.

What then happens to consumer misuse as is the prevalent situation in Ghana? You guess!

Black plastic cutlery and plates have been discovered in some of the so called high class stores such as Koala at Osu and even National Security has picked up on the emerging issue of the Black Plastic Menace in Ghana made in China and Ghana being sold in these shops. It is even worse in the open marketplaces where the majority of illiterate and ignorant Ghanaian consumers patronise these products to the risk of their health and safety.

Some factories in the Accra industrial area are being reported to be recycling plastic from e-waste, car batteries and other toxic components in the manufacture of these black plastic cutlery, plates, bowls, buckets and bins/water containers and concealing the pigmentation with black dyes.
Expert opinion from the GSB also refers to the use of other colours apart from black in dyeing toxic recycled plastics. The dangers are worse when hot food is kept in these placticware as it catalyses the migration of toxins from the plasticware into the food that has the likelihood of causing cancer.

…And what has black plasticware got to do with the devil? You decide!
Are we safe?

www.ghanaconsumerwatch.blogspot.com
www.ghanaconsumerwatch.wordpress.com
www.theconsumerpartnership.wordpress.com

Fake, Fake And Fake Again!

By Prof. Lade Wosornu
Saturday, 01 December 2007
http://www.newtimesonline.com/content/view/12726/222/

Fake, fake and fake again. Bogus… Imitation… Counterfeit…You see them everywhere… Currencies spare parts perfume DVDs CDs cosmetics fabric dresses shoes booze bags accessories watches brief cases suit cases cigarettes cigars diamond gold bishops priests….

What makes you think that medicines should be free of fakes? Because human lives are directly at stake?

To whom can you turn?

The barons of fake drugs (fakes for short) do not give a jot about your life or mine. Money is their craze. And, it is war out there. They, in one camp, regulators in the other. They do not care what collateral damage is done as they pursue their ill-gotten gains. If Madam Aku Shika, fish monger at Chorkor, gets shot in the cross-fire, just too bad.

Of all the chilling manifestos of these new slave traders, few can be frostier than this: "If God didn’t want them sheered, He won’t have created them sheep."

So, to whom can you turn? Concerning drug regulation systems, it has been shown that only 20 per cent of WHO member states have well-developed ones; 30 per cent have none. In any event, governments and agencies can look out for you so far, but no further. You must learn to look after yourself.

Few fakes get caught, and even fewer deaths from fakes are detected. Best of all, if they get caught, the penalties are less severe.

Fake dealers know all that. They count on all that, as they tot up their dollars but ignore the corpses off whose flesh they feed.


The individual?

What can the individual do to protect himself or herself? Not much! Madam Veronica Gargo, chair, Tsokor Vigilantes, was explaining: "Don’t blame Aku Skika. The ‘pharmacist’ took her new Cedis and gave her capsules for fever. He even said: ‘Actually, Aku, you are lucky. These are the last six capsules left."

So, Madam Gargo shrugged her shoulders and sighed: "How for do!"

She is in good company as witness this report. "In developing countries, public education is also poor. A study in Laos showed that over 60 per cent of peddlers and 80-96 per cent of consumers knew nothing about fakes."

The report adds: "Better education might not make that great a difference. Over 50 per cent of the world lack access to hospitals. A sick man is a desperate man. He will take whatever he can get." Even if it’s fake?

"Ohiafo heor nii ke djirawale." This is Gã: "The poor buy expensively!" And, some times, it would seem, they pay with their lives. But, in this corner, who is counting the dead?

This is G "The poor buy expensively!" And, some times, it would seem, they pay with their lives. But, in this corner, who is counting the dead?

Even the enlightened

What makes you think that only un-lettered stereotypes are hood-winked, conned and down-right robbed in day light? Mr. Oto Weley, faceless ‘aplanke’ and stand-by driver who, first thing in the morning, shows up at the lorry park reeking of ‘fumes’? Or, Madam Mercy Badu, dealer in second-hand beads?

Professor Dr. Dr. Kofi Bosu, PhD, MB, ChB, is current president, Skin Researchers’ Guild. (Pardon me, but the gentleman really prefers the triple appellation: professor, doctor and again doctor.) An experienced traveler, the professor-double-doctor was buying another rolex at Laguna International.

"Is it genuine?" "Fake? Sir? How? Of course…Give you good discount." "How much?"

Gerald Abu, 25, unemployed, of no fixed abode, could scent blood. "You special customer… First today. 50 per cent.... 60…75 per cent..." And so, the professor-double-doctor paid $ 500 ($1,750 in duty-free) ….Smiles…Handshakes…. Two weeks later, in James Town, the ‘gold’ started to fade and the rolex stopped.

For ‘rolex’ substitute Viagra, Multivitamins and the unending life-style products.

Source

Technology makes fakes easier to produce and the Internet speeds the pace of commerce. Sales of fakes will reach $75 billion globally in 2010, an increase of over 90 per cent from 2005.

Fakes have found a natural home in some countries. There has grown a deadly industry. The poorest nations are paying the price, where 50-70 per cent of medicines are fake (WHO). It has been called "One of the greatest atrocities of our time… Mass murder… A form of terrorism against public health…Economic sabotage."


Serious imitation, serious business

Today’s fakes are often impossible to distinguish without chemical testing. The packaging is identical to the real McCoy.

"It used to be amateurs. Now scientists have entered the fray. They can replicate products quickly, complete with perfectly copied packages in amazing detail. Mind you, the content can be boric acid, floor wax and yellow paint."

The business may be criminal. But it is serious and highly organised. The countries which house the perpetrators, also have their share of victims. "Bi ni ker enye akawor ler, ler hu ewong." This is Ga. The child who says his mom should not sleep, also shall not sleep."

See how organised crime runs their fake businesses: networks with suppliers, buyers, distributors, financiers, markets. They have CEOs and CFOs with managers for production, shipping and follow-up.

The manufacturing is a multi-step process in the same town. One factory makes the pills, another ingredients, a third labels and even holographs…Then wholesale markets across the country, followed by global distributors – overland, by air and by ship and so to Africa. Shipments tend to go through mega-ports. Why? Because, where is the safest place to conceal pebbles? Pebble beach…

They also know the markets well. Different drugs for different populations: life-style versus life-saving. There’s also a price-point differential: Expensive (fake) brand names go up to rich Texas. Fake generics and over-the-counter stuff come down to Hwidiem.

Not all economies are created equal

The big boys take care of themselves. In developed countries, the big Pharmas are Alsatians. They jealously guard their brand, their market share and customers. Not so in developing countries. Our markets are less profitable, brand loyalty is fickle and societies less litigious. So, why should they look out for the likes of us?

Tackle the roots

Efforts are being made to cut the problem off at source. Central governments are becoming more effective in the war on fakes. But, problems remain at local authorities. Rules passed in capital cities are not always enforced in Kejebi.

Take this market as an example. A city, 650,000…Six hours south of a capital. Over 30,000 wholesale distributors…Over 40,000 different types of products. Between 80 to 90 per cent are perfect fakes. A host of other businesses support the market and employees. These include hotels, night clubs, transportation and storage.

A new slave trade

If an official were to shut down the fake market, that would ruin the local economy, bankrupt businesses, raise unemployment and create social unrest. This, social unrest, is one thing governments fear most- even more than the black plague.

Therefore, cracking down on known fake cities may be too little, too late. For one thing, factories shall move to shadier, less regulated places. For another, buyers from your town and mine will pursue the loot and not allow them to be closed.

Such are the moguls of this new slave trade. And, here is their favourite value statement: "If God didn’t want them sheered, He won’t have created them sheep".

You’d better watch out for yourself.

**Lade Worsonu is a Professor in Surgery, King Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Consumer Protection: A Panacea For Shoddy Goods & Services?

by Jean Lukaz

Pundits in Ghana have always pointed fingers at the ineffectiveness of consumer protection associations in the country in the face of the proliferation of shoddy goods and services. Why consumers are thinking along these lines are a wonder. It is as if consumer protection will get into factories and offices and literally rid the country of this menace.  On the other hand, consumer activism stimulates the market to provide products, processes and services that are better and safer.

Hard or Soft Power?

Consumer protection is not about hard power, the use of physical force. It is rather on the contrary. It is about soft power: dialogue, persuasion, understanding, and joint action by consumers, producers and the government. Hard consumer power rather alienates consumers and consumer activists from the government and producers of goods and services. It is in this light that some people feel that lawyers are probably the best activists when it comes to consumer protection but let’s get this right: is consumer protection about litigation and legal threats? Consumers are generally assumed to be laymen, otherwise irrational in their thinking when they are uninformed. The aim of consumer protection is to present safe products and services in plain lay universal language that is understandable by all so that consumers will put products and services to the right use for which they were purposed.

The Weapon

Consumers are not specialists but in consumption. And the only adverse way consumers react is by way of complaints and boycott. An influx of complaints on a particular product or service is an alarm bell and a call to action. Action is not necessarily litigation, which rather ends up antagonising producers of goods and services. Action is about alerting the producer who may not even be aware of the impact of their products on consumers. Complaints, by way of feedback, arm consumers with the reason to proceed to the next level in case of inaction on the part of producers. When consumer complaints are met with arrogance and denials, industry associations are the next places to visit with the complaints. Consumers may collectively channel their complaints through a consumer protection association or other and request for feedback on the action that will be taken by the industry association within a specified timeframe. Where the industry association compromises or is ineffective, the regulator of the industry is the next point of call and consumers may well put their complaints and grievances in writing even after verbally doing so. One would ask about what to do if the regulator fails to act…in that case there is something definitely wrong with the whole process of consumer complaints management process in the industry or country. This requires a microscopic examination of the structures that have been established to give consumers their value for money. The lawsuit is the last resort if you have the money to bring commercial giants into the courtroom. It may not be worth your complaint to sue unless it is intended to generate negative publicity for the producer in order to sensitise the public about their insensitivity.

The Practicals

To put the above into practice, if you are aggrieved for buying a faulty new automobile and the seller or distributor refuses to repair or replace it, you just make sure you put your complaint or grievance into writing and copy it to a consumer protection association such as The Consumer Partnership (THE-COP). The next step is to send another letter on how you have been treated unfairly by the distributor and what action you request to the Automobile Distributors Association (if there is any), attaching a copy of your previous letter to the distributor. Make sure a copy of this letter is also sent to the consumer protection association that received your first letter (this will help them to monitor and fight on your behalf where the occasion arises). If the industry association in question compromises or does not act on your complaint after the timeframe you requested expires (unless they reply to explain) you then proceed to the regulator of the automobile industry in Ghana: I’m not sure who does…Where there is no regulator or a national consumer ombudsman, the Ministry of Trade in this case may be the next point of contact with your new complaint letter detailing the various actions you have taken that have not received any attention and what action you are requesting. Remember to copy this final letter to your correspondent consumer protection association and attach copies of all correspondence to the Ministry of Trade including relevant receipts and contracts (do not send original copies). If the Ministry fails to respond without explanation within a timeframe it is time to talk to some litigant lawyers. In Ghana the Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL) may be of help. They may however take a commission from your claim for their effort even if you do not pay any fees initially. Remember the media at this stage but consult the consumer protection association first as they may give your story the right twist. Other consumers will definitely need to share your experience with such an arrogant distributor so they may not fall victim to their wiles.

To Be or Not to Be?

The question under review here is: Does consumer protection bring sanity into a system? The answer may be a yes and no depending on where you are coming from. If you are coming from the USA, where industry regulation is quite effective, then Ralph Nader has already done most of the work so the answer may be a yes. If you are fortunate to come from Ghana, where regulation of industry is rather ineffective, the answer is a big NO! Consumer protection is just one of the answers and its effectiveness is dependent on a number of factors.

Competition, regulation and standards all go hand in hand in giving consumer protection a boost.

Competition forces otherwise producers of shoddy goods and services to put their best before consumers in order to win a market share. Competition, in the face of the market forces of demand and supply, keeps the best actors in business whilst phasing out the bad and ugly. Lack of competition gives consumers no alternatives to substitute shoddy goods and services for as a monopolistic environment may not be a fertile ground for consumer protection fundamentalism.

Regulation outlines legal norms for those in industry and is bound by law that is mandatorily enforced. The contents of regulations are usually a prerequisite for entry into the industry and pre-establish conformity. However, poor regulation is an epitome of a porous enforcement mechanism and corrupted enforcement agents. In a system where there is virtually no enforcement, there is usually a lack of consumer confidence and consumers may resign to their fate. Consumers in such a system will not formally complain as it ridicules them and makes a mockery of the process and will, thus, become apathetic to the activities of consumer protection associations. Complaints are then replaced with word of mouth moaning to friends and relatives. 

Standards when mandatory are part of regulation and provide an automatic platform for consumer satisfaction. Standards are ‘…rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context’ (ISO/IEC Guide 2). Standards may also be voluntary whereby members of a body establish a code of conduct to guide their operations. Recognition may be in the form of the use of a well-recognised quality mark or trustmark. Companies and individuals use and adhere to standards voluntarily, or because they are required to by law. When compliance with a standard is not mandated by law, companies and individuals follow the terms of the standards simply because it is in their interest to do so — standards improve the quality of products, processes or services, reassure customers and open up markets. The terms of standards may also be incorporated into government statutes and regulations, in which case companies and individuals must follow them as a matter of law. In some cases, governments initiate and participate in standards development so the standard can be included in legislation. In other cases, governments find that an existing standard can be used to deal with a public policy problem and include it in new legislation.

Complaints, in the face of standards, are also endemic in an environment characterised by corruption, non-conformity and non-enforcement of standards. Consumers, acting rationally, would want the best products and services at the least cost that is readily available. Thus, consumers would look out for certain elements that have been traditionally infused into standards such as health and safety, fitness for purpose (performance), product information and labelling, environmental protection, fair pricing, interoperability (ability of a product to be used in different countries and within a product range) and systems of redress. However, oblivious to the prevalence of shoddy goods and services, consumers may also presume that all products and services on offer are safe for their use- a danger to their health and safety.

So if you find yourself in a country where competition is virtually non-existent, regulation lacks enforcement and where standards are not really working, the only way forward is consumer participation in standardization. When consumers are represented in the standards-making process, their views are taken into account and it subsequently forms an automatic basis for consumer satisfactions albeit this will still require a stringent enforcement mechanism to be manifest.

Consumer participation is also beneficial for manufacturers, because goods and services that adopt standards developed with consumer participation may be more easily accepted in the marketplace.

 

Published in Public Agenda on 11th December, 2006: www.ghanaweb.com/public_agenda

http://www.theconsumerpartnership.org

China Pushes Fake "Indian" Drugs in Africa

10 June 2009; http://www.safemedicines.org/

Nigeria's food and drug watchdog, the National Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has seized Chinese-made fake generic anti-malarial drugs with the label 'Made in India'.

India had long suspected that many Chinese firms conspiring with Nigerian drug traders, were dumping fake drugs in Nigeria, to be sold locally as well as in some other African countries like West Africa, South Africa, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

After being alerted by the Indian high commissioner in the Nigerian capital Abuja, the Indian government has lodged a strong protest with the Chinese foreign trade ministry.

The Indian high commission in Nigeria had been aware for some time that Chinese companies were pushing fake drugs with the 'Made in India' tag since Indian generic drugs are the preferred choice of importers in Nigeria.

Indian high commissioner Mahesh Sachdev has also taken up the issue with the director-general of NAFDAC Dr Paul Orhii, who has assured that his administration would do its best to stop the fake drugs from entering Nigeria.

India is oncerned that these fake drugs manufactured in China and sold in African nations with the 'Made in India' tag could not only harm the country's reputation but also eat into the share of Indian drugs in the generic drug market in Africa.

The UK newspaper The Observer had also reported recently that fake Chinese drugs were flooding the UK market and Bian Zhenjia, China's deputy commissioner of the State Food and Drug Administration, said that it was wrong to say that China was a major exporter of fake drugs'

''I do not agree with what the foreign media has been saying. The Chinese government has always paid great attention to cracking down on fake drugs,'' Bian told a news conference in Beijing yesterday.

He however admitted that the problem could lie with some overseas companies having deals with illegal producers in China where foreign companies import chemicals from China and then use them to produce the drugs.

China has a flourishing but badly regulated pharmaceutical industry, with numerous underground factories and illegal manufacturers of spurious drugs thriving with little or no supervision at all.

In 2006, nearly 100 people in Panama are believed to have died after consuming toxic, mislabelled drugs in cough syrup from China.

Hundreds had also died due to allergic reactions caused by contaminants in the blood thinner heparin imported from China, which eventually led to the product being recalled in the US.

A diabetes drug linked to deaths in China, was pulled out after samples were found containing six times the normal amount of a chemical used to lower blood sugar.

The Chinese drug regulator had to recall many counterfeit and shoddy drugs and herbal medicines, including Chinese versions of Viagra in China itself.

Chinese, and now Indian, companies have been accused of selling fake drugs in Nigeria's $298-million pharmaceutical market, nearly 60 per cent of which comprises imports.

Although, the $298 figure looks small, it is attractive to fake drug manufacturers. According to a survey conducted in Nigeria in 2007, fake drugs make up for over 50 per cent of all drug sales in th country. The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, puts thefigure of fake drugs circulating in the country at nearly 70 per cent.

The NAFDAC website shows that it has blacklisted more than 30 Indian and Chinese companies for exporting fake drugs into the country.

The Nigerian fake drug trade operates with mafia-like thoroughness and is run by wealthy businessmen with links to the underworld.

The director-general of NAFDAC is regarded as one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

Nigerian minister of information, Dorothy "Dora" Akunyili, who was the previous director-general of NAFDAC had been fighting a relentless battle during her tenure with drug traders in Nigeria by publicly burning seized fake drugs and conducting massive raids with armed police battalion.

The wealthy fake drug lords struck back by burning down NAFDAC labs and buildings and even made an attempt to kill her. Akunyili narrowly escaped death when a bullet grazed her head after suspected assassins opened fire on her official car in 2003.

Nobody knows the way the Nigerian fake drug market operates as Akunyil does. A pharmacologist by profession, her diabetic sister, Vivian Edemobi , died in 1988 after being administered fake insulin for two years.

According to Akunyili, who is now the Nigerian minister of information, fake drug manufacturers have become so sophisticated, that even multinational drug companies find it difficult to say whether their own drugs in Nigeria are genuine or fakes.

Consumers’ Right to Ghana’s Water

by The Consumer Partnership (THE-COP)

Access to a basic supply of water and sanitation is widely recognised in principle as a fundamental human right. The United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights adopted a General Comment on the Right to Water in November 2002. This puts an obligation on governments to extend access to sufficient, affordable and safe water and sanitation services progressively to all citizens without discrimination. This right, which we support, is also established in Agenda 21, in the Declaration of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the 4th P7 Summit on Water (a meeting dedicated to the world’s poorest countries).

To meet the Millennium Development Goals of halving the number of people without access to water and sanitation by 2015, 400,000 new connections need to be made each day for water and 500,000 for sanitation. This is estimated to cost approximately U$25 billion of investment per year. Debates about water policy focus on how to find the funds for this large investment and how to manage water resources to meet the basic rights of all.

Some of the sharpest disputes have been about private sector participation, often promoted as a means to inject capital and management expertise. Consumers International’s (CI) research shows that private sector involvement, which can take many forms, has in some cases been very valuable (eg rapid network extension, community involvement in informal settlements, leakage reduction, integration of informal vendors) and in others has been disastrous for consumers (eg rapid price rises, premature contract renegotiation, failure to meet expansion targets). In the same way, some public supply systems are excellent, and others are very bad. There should be a code of practice for water utility operators, be they public or private operators.

CI therefore promotes a set of principles which should be applied to all water supply systems, whether in the public sector, entirely privately managed, or a mixture of the two. These principles reflect and support the statements adopted within the United Nations.   

Consumer principles

1.      Consumer rights  Water is a basic need and access to it is therefore specifically recognised in the first of the eight internationally accepted consumer rights. Access to sufficient safe water is essential for life itself, as a vital contributor to public health, and for personal dignity and fulfilment. Water is not just a commercial product like any other and it is a primary obligation on responsible government to make the right to water a reality.

2.      A public good  Water itself is a public good and must remain so. Rights to extract water from sources such as natural reservoirs, rivers and aquifers should be controlled by public authorities, with due regard for the needs of producers, consumers and the environment.

3.      Shared resources Natural water resources are shared between states and cross their boundaries along river basins. Access to water for all consumers must be the overriding objective in reaching equitable agreements about water use across geographical and political boundaries. 

4.      Regulation  Whether provided by public institutions, the private sector, or a combination of the two, water treatment and distribution systems should be subject to effective state regulation to promote and protect the public interest. Regulation should cover access - including as necessary, pricing policy, safety, and service quality (cut-offs, pressure maintenance, billing, for example). Regulation should also cover small scale vendors  where relevant.

5.      Consumer involvement  Consumers should be involved in the regulatory process, including in both establishing and implementing of these regulations. Stakeholder involvement should start with the assessment of needs and objectives and the analysis  of possible utility management models to meet these. The provision of full and timely information is essential for effective stakeholder involvement at all stages.

6.      Pricing  Water pricing, and the use of any subsidies, should be transparent and also equitable between groups of users in similar circumstances. Poverty should never be a barrier to access to a basic supply of clean water and to effective sanitation.

7.      Payment and subsidies  Paying for the water supply should be properly costed and the means to pay for it identified and planned. This includes both capital and operating costs. But recovery of full costs from charges to users should not be the only approach. Public interest objectives such as improving public health and enabling communities to escape from the unproductive drudgery of time-consuming water collection, should be taken into account and if necessary supported by subsidies.

8.      Avoiding waste  Water is a scarce resource and making it available to all, especially the poor, is a challenge for all countries and communities. Consumers have an obligation to respect the wider public interest by avoiding wasteful use, ensuring that they do not contaminate the supply, and paying their due share of the costs of supply.

9.      Private sector obligations  Private companies providing water services have an obligation to respect and support effective regulation, to play a responsible part in delivering social objectives and, where they operate internationally, to apply good safety and service quality standards in all countries.

10.  Polluter pays The polluter pays principle, covering both preventive measure and clean-up costs, should apply to natural water resources and to water distribution and sanitation systems.

Credit: Consumers International (CI) and Water & Sanitation Program (WSP)

My Drinking Water From Your Latrine

*By Jean Lukaz

When I touched down four years ago and questioned why people buy sachet water instead of drinking the ‘pure’ borehole alternative in the absence of piped water, little did I reckon that my secondary school science knowledge may be flawed. The water meters in Taifa-Burkina were just part of the exterior décor of houses and quite unlike the poisoned gas taps and showers in the Nazi camps, the taps in the area bill you for pure air…

Borehole water in Apatrapa, near Kumasi is not as salty as the same source of water at Taifa near Accra. And if you happen to live on a flat land, on top of a hill, on a slope, or in a valley, your borehole water may taste different depending on what soil-related activities are taking place on the land right up or next to you.

Drinking ‘pure’ KVIP Water?

Due to the lack of treated water supply in Honourable-Reverend-Professor Mike Ocquaye’s Taifa constituency almost one in five houses own a quasi-permanent water supply from below in the form of borehole wells that are used for both domestic and commercial purposes. At the same time, those that are thrifty have found ingenious ways of cutting down on the cost of water use by building an ‘Advanced KVIP’- a latrine with a WC on top I presume... in place of a water-run WC. The borehole water in this area is by no means tastier and salty due to the probable impurities it contains. My argument here may have no scientific basis but commonsense is all the ordinary consumer needs to be able to examine any situation that affects their status quo.

Soak away…

Cost-cutters have found old ways more beneficial and have resorted to the ‘soak away’ method of draining their domestic sewage. Outflows from the kitchen, bathroom and more recently, the toilets have all been directed to the soak away for onward seepage into underground water neighbouring borehole water systems. It may be cheaper avoiding the sucking costs of the Yafurus, Zoomlions, Jogmas, etc, but the deliberate recycling of toilet water for borehole purposes is definitely going to yield results…possibly bigger balls than the strange disease that has reared its ugly head in some villages in the country.

In as much as almost all the residents of Taifa buy clean or contaminated sachet water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, dishwashing and bathing are all done with borehole water. Pray that you never go broke if you are resident in the community, or you may be forced to drink some of the borehole stuff. Boiling before you drink is advisable but what if you cannot afford the extra energy cost?

Does the advanced-KVIP next door to or on the premises of a borehole water seller ring a bell? And some of these benevolent businessmen have attached pure water factories to their ‘pure’ wells and are selling the obvious.

Consumer Rights

This piece may sound provocative but the supply of drinking water is a consumer right as well as the provision of sanitation facilities to communities. And if my knowledge of languages serves me any purpose, Aqua-whatever-Vitens has definitely got something to do with water, precisely piped water supply in Ghana with rumored jurisdiction over underground water supply from KVIPs and soak aways as well.

There is tension between water as a scarce economic resource and access to water as a human right. The right to the satisfaction of basic needs, the right to safety and the right to a healthy environment are consumer rights all related the provision of water and sanitation services by the government. Safe water is crucial for life and health, its availability and affordability for the entire population are of enormous welfare and political importance.

 Cost

There are much higher costs of water for unconnected people compared to those with piped supply. A sachet of half-litre drinking water costs 300 cedis, equivalent to the cost of 10 litres of borehole water in Taifa: 20 times the quantity. In some areas of Accra, it costs even more and many have franchised the work of the Aqua-whatever-Vitens Ghana Water Company by blocking a whole neighbourhood’s piped water supply for their monopoly Russian-style.

Are we worried?

Published in Public Agenda on 16th April 2007: www.ghanaweb.com/public_agenda

*The author is a Consumer Advocate and he can be reached at Http://www.theconsumerpartnership.org 

 

Robbery On Our Streets?

*By Jean Lukaz

Hardly a day passes without the usual harassment of street vendors touting all sorts of items from newspapers to car accessories to other consumables. A cause of worry is the sale of cigarette and gas lighters, catapults, pocket knives and machettis our streets. Since street robbers started attacking road users with some of these replica pistol-shaped gas lighters, syringes and machettis, scarcely were any of the victims alert as to whether they were being sold the ‘weapon’ or being attacked until…

Ghanaian consumers have always been at the mercy of lax laws or the enforcement of seemingly effective ones. In some advanced countries like Britain, the possession of a knife or any sharp weapon in public is itself a crime let alone touting same in the street for sale.

The Ghana Police Service once warned on the sale of replica gun-shaped objects and toys when armed robbery was on the rise in the country but soon suffered from amnesia, a common disease with law enforcement in Ghana.

So you want to buy a rifle-shaped lighter on the streets with engines of vehicles running. How do you test for product quality? Of course you may need to light it in the midst of petrol and diesel packed street without cognisance of any leaky ones and BOOM! Forget about the fire service and call a water tanker… but both will come in handy.

A machetti peddler approaches your vehicle. You ask how much and he tells you ‘10 million cedis’.

‘You’re mad?’, you ask.

‘No’, comes the reply.

‘Your money or your arm?’

Whew… No time to discern whether he is a street vendor or robber as the sight of your own blood will depict how serious he is.

A syringe-touting street vendor may be an unusual sight but that is definitely a junkie, and not a nurse! You may have a choice between HIV/Aids, your money or your car… No lesser evil here.

How about the recent trend of hitchhikers on our streets? It may not sound like a consumer issue until you have the opportunity of partaking in the hooker experience. An opportunity if you are a sex tourist. A see-through, low neck, low back, low waist line ‘I’m-not-for-sale’ young women desperately in need of hitching a ride to an unknown destination apart from yours are the ones that will be creating a scene when you ask them to get off your vehicle.

‘Pay me or I’ll call my pimps, you dirty b _ _ _ _ _ d!’   

It may be easier to comprehend all these situations if they occur in front of the Psychiatric Hospital. It is rumoured that everyday some of the inmates are released onto the streets to test whether they are back to ‘normal’. Subjectively, all of them will be normal except you, the victim.

The consumer hotlines of the Police are always engaged. These robber-killer-hooker-junkies need them more than you do. So anytime you step out of your home, PLEASE BE A VIGILANT AND DISCERNING CONSUMER!

 

Published in Public Agenda on 16th April 2007: www.ghanaweb.com/public_agenda

*The author is a Consumer Advocate and he can be reached at Http://www.theconsumerpartnership.org 

Ghanaian Consumers Can Sue Electricity Conpany Of Ghana (ECG)

...BLAME HIS [ECG MD] IGNORANCE AND THE MISSING CONSUMER PROTECTION BILL...

...says Jean Yaw Twum Lukaz MIH, Consumer Advocate

Ignorant and arrogant statements by Mr. Jude Adu-Amankwah, Managing Director of ECG, marked the moment of truth for the lack of a Consumer Protection Law in Ghana. The Consumer Protection Bill is still lost in the files of the /ministry of Trade due to the manipulations of companies like ECG who feel threatened by its provisions. The Consumer Protection Bill is still under the carpet so that Ghanaian Consumers can continue to hear the trumpets of ignorance coming from "unenlightened" people in his likes.

For a whole Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Boss to make such a statement with the intention of intimidating Ghanaian consumers is a sad story. Mr. Jude Adu-Amankwah, Managing Director of ECG, called the bluff of Ghanaian electricity consumers when he made the statement that consumers are helpless receivers of poor electricity supplies who are receiving a favour from ECG and not a service demands his resignation. He simply does not understand the responsibilities he has been given.

Commercial influence in our politics and judicial system is degrading consumer protection in Ghana whilst denying Ghanaian Consumers of their rights. Lack of a small claims court and Consumer Redress systems makes consumer actions a matter beyond the reach of poor Ghanaian consumers.

Electricity Companies have been sued worldwide and Ghana is not a new story. Consumers will need to initiate a class action against ECG. The problems arise when it comes to proof but consumers do not need to be technicians to prove that ECG is supplying poor quality electricity to Ghanaian Consumers. The equipment needed to consistently measure and record the quality of electricity being delivered to Ghanaians is not readily available but simple experiments do the trick.

In most of the developing countries where consumer class actions have been brought against electricity suppliers and consumers have won the adjudication has been rooted in the existing Consumer Protection Laws which give consumers a framework for redress. Examples are India, Indonesia, Philippines, etc.