Perception of brewery pollution among inhabitants of kaase in Kumasi, Ghana

Undoubtedly, brewery companies like many other commercial companies in Ghana contribute to the economic development of the nation. In fact, there is nothing new about companies being development agents. In this study, the perception of brewery’s activities with respect to pollution among some inhabitants of Kaase Kumasi, Ghana was investigated. In the study, 80 randomly selected respondents from Kaase near the Guinness Brewery Limited were interviewed with the help of questionnaires. These were compared with their control counterpart ie 80 randomly selected respondents from high School Junction all in Kumasi, Ghana. Analysis of the results based on one’s general knowledge of site of disposal of brewery waste showed that, knowledge of the dumping site was evenly distributed among both communities. Greater proportion of respondents around the upstream area of the Sissa stream in Kaase (27.5%) however, perceived odour emanated from the brewery affected their health compared to their upstream counterpart (13.75%). This was statistically significant (p=0.0316). The study also showed that, greater proportions of respondents from the Kaase area (Downstream of the Sissa stream) i.e., (97.5%) were of the view that malaria was a major concern affecting their family compared to respondents from High school junction (71.25%) (p<0.0001). Results from this study has shown that, inhabitants of Kaase living near Guinness Ghana Limited perceive the brewery could be polluting their environment with their production.