Garbage is in high demand at Gbebu and Glefe, two communities in the Ablekuma South sub-metro of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA). Ironically, while the AMA is currently struggling to ensure effective management of solid waste in the city with the Oblogo dumping site almost full, some residents of Glefe reportedly fight over this commodity, which they use to fill the frontage of their waterlogged houses. Their counterparts at Gbebu are also using the garbage to reclaim the River Gbebu so that they can build houses on it. On entering the two communities, one is first greeted with the nauseating stench from the mixture of the putrefied garbage and water. According to the Daily Graphic, when one recovers from the first shock, he or she would also see the various waste materials, which include even non biodegradable waste which is used to fill large portions of the communities. In spite of the large volumes of garbage used to fill the ground, water continues to ooze from it, making the entire community environmentally unfriendly, a mosquito breeding zone and totally unsafe habitation, especially for children, some of whom are as young as seven who ease themselves along the beaches. Residents of the communities, however, seem not to be bothered by the general unsanitary condition in the area. The Ablekuma sub-metro, which has an oversight responsibility over the area, seems helpless as it is unable to stop the practice. A director at the sub-metro, Mrs Abena Kwesiwaa Kyei, confirmed this practice in an interview with the Daily Graphic but said the sub-metro was at its wits end in trying to stop it, since the people had made it virtually impossible for them to bring some level of sanity to the area. She described residents of the two communities as stubborn, adding that various attempts made by the sub-metro to stop the practice had not yielded any results. Gbebu is a community located near Glefe, where some residents have built their houses along the shorelines, depleting it of all the sand that could protect the community during high tides. The residents had in the past suffered and continue to suffer the consequences of their actions as the least rise in the tides sends sea water running into their homes. Residents of Gbebu, however, do not seem to have learnt any lesson from their next door neighbour, Glefe, and are also degrading the environment, oblivious of the dangers that they are inviting to themselves. Environmental degradation is rife in the two communities. Source: Daily Graphic