Neccessity is the mother of invention, is a well known proverb which means difficult situations inspire ingenious solutions.

Some Rickshaw (pragya or Mahama can do) drivers at Alabar, suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Regional Capital, have turned their rickshaws into “chamber and a hall” and sleep in them at night.

And to make the place very comfortable for them to enjoy the night, these smart youngmen cover the rickshaws with insecticide treated bed nets to keep mosquitoes away from interfering with their sleep.

They, however, use the pragya to convey passengers during the day and use them as rooms at night.

The photographs depict riders living in the populated community with open gutters which breed a lot of mosquitoes.

Issahaku Mohammed, a rider who spoke with The SPECTATOR said, “it is for our own safety and a form of personal protection which has reduced malaria in the area.”

He said, they usually spent much time taking fresh air outside during the night, and in order not to be bitten by mosquitoes he used the bed nets as form of protection.

According to him, the bed nets served also as a barrier to prevent children from having access to the tricycles when they were left outside.

Hudu Zakaria, a scrap dealer also said he had been “sleeping in the tricycle under a treated mosquito net for the past three years” because he did not have accommodation.

He said, the insecticides used for treating bed nets “repel and kill mosquitoes, as well as other insects.”

Madam Agnes Amankwah, a retired nurse and a Licensed Over-the-Counter drug store owner in the area said “the protection that a mosquito net provides against malaria doubles when the net is treated with insecticide.”

She added that, the chemical used to treat the net would lose its effect if it was over exposed in the open and advised the people to change the nets as frequently as possible to make them effective in malaria prevention.

From Geoffrey Buta, Kumasi