JoyNews’ Emmanuel Kwasi Debrah has been honoured at the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) for his impactful reporting on the Environment for 2020.

His entry titled “Superbug in the Hospital Waste“ received the second honourable mention in the Feature/Small category.

The SEJ Awards for Reporting on the Environment, honoured the best articles, radio broadcasts, and videos released from March 1, 2019, through February 29, 2020, and the best books on environmental topics published in 2019.

The SEJ contest is the world’s largest and most comprehensive environmental journalism competition. (https://www.sej.org/winners-sej-19th-annual-awards-reporting-environment)

The number of entries in the 2020 contest peaked at 499, another all-time high for the contest. Entries were judged by independent panels of journalists and professors.

Judges’ comments: 

“The world is battling the plague of multi-drug resistance, and a populated area of 12 million in Ghana face catastrophic results from antibiotics.

Emmanuel Debrah documents the impact of this country’s heavy consumption of prescribed drugs and vegetables irrigated by contaminated water. Using interview clips with area medical professionals, he researches the impact of 12 antibodies (the “superbug”) on the lives and health of Ghanaians.

The short film explains that this population has a heightened bacterial resistance to proven medication(s) which influence their rejection of treatment for tuberculosis, HIV, gonorrhea and malaria. This “superbug” poses a dangerous threat to those for whom bacteria have become impregnable to antibiotics.”

Kwasi Debrah’s story received massive response from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly which compelled the three institutions to fashion out ways to reconstruct the broken sewage.

“Broken Sewage Carrying Waste From 3 Health Institutions To Be Reconstructed”