Litter assessment at the Sakumono and La Pleasure coastal areas, Ghana

Abstract

Abstract. Adjei O, Lamptey AM. 2021. Litter assessment at the Sakumono and La Pleasure coastal areas, Ghana. Indo Pac J Ocean Life 5: 83-91. Ghana has a difficult time managing waste, especially in the cities. The situation is even made worse in coastal urban areas by population growth. When the rains fall and wash the solid wastes downstream, most waste produced and lost inland ends up in the coastal and marine environment. In addition, revelers who use the areas for entertainment and tourism also contribute to the waste created. The Sakumono and La Pleasure Beaches in the Greater Accra Region served as the sites for this study. This study's primary goal was to assess how much waste was on the beaches at the two locations. The study made use of a transect measuring 1,000 m2. A total of 2,697 litter items were collected from the two beaches. During the survey, 50.07 kg from both sites comprised the entire weight of the litter collected. Comparatively, the amount of waste collected from La Pleasure was 18.28 kg, which accounted for 36.51% of the total amount of litter surveyed. The amount of trash collected from Sakumono Beach was 31.79 kg, representing 63.49% of the total litter surveyed. Plants were discovered to be the most prevalent material by weight and number. Plastics accounted for 72.56% of the total composition for both beaches, or 1,975 items, and 65.53% of the total composition, or 32.81 kg, respectively. In comparison to La Pleasure Beach, Sakumono Beach was found to be more littered. An alpha value of 0.05 (a p-value = 0.02) indicated this was significant. Ongoing monitoring, intensive education, and sensible policy initiatives are still essential to address the beach litter problem along Ghana's coasts.