On Sunday, January 4, residents of Tema Community 1 were shocked and incensed when they found a newborn baby’s body abandoned within a large sewage tunnel next to Standard Chartered Bank.
During a community-led maintenance effort, the sombre finding was made.
Liquid waste was starting to flood into the streets due to a major clog in the local sewage system, which residents had complained about.
A group of local volunteers organised to hand remove solid garbage from the underground tubes so that fluids could flow freely in an effort to solve the sanitary problem.
But when the workmen extracted a thick, black polythene bag from the depths of the sewer blockage, the normal cleaning became a nightmare.
When the staff opened the bag, they discovered an infant that seemed to have been abandoned soon after birth.
The location swiftly turned into a place of grieving as a sizable group of spectators and bystanders gathered, many of them cursing and criticising the unidentified offender.
Eyewitness Daniel called the scene “one of the most terrifying experiences of his life.” He pointed out that there was no consideration for human dignity in the infant’s disposal.
“The placenta and the baby were wrapped together in a black polythene bag, which was very distressing,” Daniel recounted.
NKONKONSA.com
