RESIDENTS WORRIED ABOUT CONTAMINATED VEGETABLES (PAGE 23, JULY 29, 2010)

VEGETABLES are said to be nutritious supplements to our daily meals as they are rich in vitamins and other nutrients.
And yet, in spite of their health benefits, the activities of vegetable farmers could sometimes turn the vegetable into a poison.
This is exactly why some residents in Tamale are worried about the type of vegetables they consume following the realisation that some farmers were using contaminated water to irrigate their vegetable crops.
According to them, such vegetables, when eaten, could affect the health of consumers and discourage people from eating vegetables, in spite of their significance to sound health.
They have, therefore, called on the Agriculture Ministry and the Ghana Health Service to collaborate and nip this practice in the bud to avert any outbreak of infection.
A report carried by the Daily Graphic had revealed that some farmers in parts of Tamale, notably Kalpohin, Ward K and Gumani, were using contaminated water to irrigate their vegetable crops.
The farmers had raised their farms on pieces of land located along some major drains and this made it easier for them to source the waste water that runs through the drains for irrigation, even though the water is replete with all forms of toxic waste such as human and animal faecal matter.
Vegetables raised on these farms include cabbage, lettuce, pepper and okra.
The practice, according to some health practitioners, could impact negatively on human health because the vegetables become contaminated before they are harvested.
The Director of Public Health in the Northern Region, Dr Jacob Yakubu Mahama, who spoke to the Daily Graphic, noted that people who consumed such vegetables faced the risk of developing diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid.
“Such vegetables,” he explained, “are likely to be contaminated by faecal matter contained in the waste water and this puts the consumer of the vegetable at risk of developing a diarrhoea disease”.
He said an outbreak of cholera through such a process could be difficult to control, “unless the consumption of the contaminated vegetables ceases”.
Dr Mahama, therefore, advised consumers of vegetables to wash them thoroughly so as to disinfect them of any contamination.
In an interview, the Tamale Metropolitan Agric Director, Mr Kwamina Arkorful, said his outfit was aware of this menace, but admitted that it was just a handful of vegetable farmers out of the lot who were engaged in this act.
He said the problem arose mainly because Tamale had no running water such as streams and rivers, and therefore, many vegetable farmers depended on dams, whilst a few used the waste water.
“We are doing our best to provide more dams and also teach the farmers safer irrigation practices for reducing vegetable contamination,” he stated.