Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, Chief Executive Officer of waste management firm, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, wants the country to rethink its attitude towards waste, likening it to commodities such as gold and oil.
Moreover, he explained, unlike gold and oil that need billions of dollars to extract, with little resources, waste can turn Ghana’s fortune around.
“Compare waste to oil and you’ll see the difference. When you want to extract gold, you need so much money and equipment to extract the gold from the ground. The gold may even get finished whereas with waste, you need little resources and waste cannot be exhausted.
“If you want to extract oil, you need a lot of billions of dollars to be able to dig so many meters into the ground, but you don’t need such to extract waste and you will also have more waste all the time. So when you compare waste with some of the natural resources you will realize that waste has value.”
Dr. Agyepong was speaking at the launch of a nationwide sanitation project by The Church of Pentecost on Thursday dubbed: ” Environmental Care Campaign: Environment, My Responsibility”.
The campaign that was launched by the Chairman of The Church of Pentecost, Aps. Eric Nyamekye will see the church engaging in aggressive education, clean-up exercise as well as community-based initiatives. It is hoped that by the time the campaign ends in 2019, the general public would consciously collaborate with governments, law enforcement agencies, and waste management companies to ensure clean and healthy environments.
READ: Church of Pentecost launches nationwide Environmental Care Campaign
In commending The Church of Pentecost for such a noble initiative, Zoomlion boss saw the campaign as a divine intervention to develop Ghana. He therefore promised to commit all the resources of Zoomlion to the campaign.
Dr. Siaw Agyepong reiterated the need for government to invest in waste management and exploit it as a natural resource.
“Waste has to be looked at today in a way that will allow Ghana to make a lot of fortune. In Ghana, we have so many natural resources such as gold, diamond, oil, cocoa among others. Today God is telling us to add waste as one of the resources he created for us. I want to plead with government to add waste as one of the natural resources.”
He stressed, “Waste has a value that we have to look at, and if you look at it in that sense then you will take care of it and campaigns such as this will be beneficial. Waste is cash and a resource.”
He mentioned countries like Rwanda, Singapore, Mauritius and a city like Dubai that did not allow waste to turn into filth, but instead, turned waste into a natural resource.
Dr. Siaw Agyepong also encouraged citizens to buy into the waste management campaign and know how to properly dispose off their waste.
He also announced that the company will add one compost treatment plant to the existing one at James Town in Accra in December, and nine more across the country in 2019.
Minister for Sanitation, Cecilia Abena Dapaah applauded The Church of Pentecost for the Environmental Care Campaign, and encouraged other faith-based organisations to do same.
She emphasised that waste is wealth and urged all to “treat the waste we can and bury those we can’t”.
The minister reminded all that the issue of sanitation should be everyone’s concern and should not be left with the district assemblies alone.
By Isaac Essel | 3news.com | Ghana
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