Media practitioners in Ghana have been called upon to give environmental sanitation similar attention it gave to illegal mining (galamsey) to help achieve President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s vision of a clean Ghana and more specifically make Accra the cleanest city in the whole of Africa.
Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies and Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong made the call when he met senior journalists to update them on the operations of his companies.
Mr. Agyepong said “instead of wasting your precious times on non-existent stories, as some of you do I appeal to you to give environmental sanitation your attention as it will go a long way to bring health and generate more wealth into our local economy”.
He said the private sector has taken pragmatic and innovative measures to support the President’s vision but what is lacking is an organized effort to support the initiative from the media, the religious bodies, civil society organizations, traditional leaders and the MMDAs to enforce just the by-laws .
“The challenge of environmental cleanliness appears insurmountable but with sheer commitment and a collective resolution by all key players such as waste managers, the media, government, civil society organisations and the individual citizens of Ghana, I am certain that we can surmount it and nip it in the bud once and for all. More importantly the president’s vision and mantra about cleanliness should be our guiding modus operandi to ensure that our country especially the gateway to Africa which is our capital Accra is kept clean at all times”.
Mr. Agyepong said he believes strongly that the problem of the waste is not about the waste managers cleaning everywhere 24/7 but the attitude of Ghanaians towards waste disposal and towards the waste managers themselves. “It is against this backdrop that I am appealing to you the media to support the waste managers and government to ensure that people’s attitude towards waste is changed for the better”.
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CEO of Zoomlion, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyapong[/caption]
He observed that with a conscientised population on waste management and the enforcement of the laws Ghana will be like London, Dubai and Singapore among others. “If you gave half of the attention the media gave to the galamsey issue to sanitation and waste management we wouldn’t still be here so my appeal is let us do more in this direction”.
He told the senior journalists that the Jospong Group of Companies led by Zoomlion Ghana Limited with its 13 years of experience have prescribed the best solution ever to our waste problems in Ghana which is the One Million Household Bin Project which has kick started already to ensure that every household is given a waste bin to dispose of their waste for collection.
“I always say even in the church and mosque where there are God fearing people if there are no waste bins the waste generated there due to human activity will find its way into the gutters and that has been our bane”.
Mr. Agyepong was hopeful that after the encounter, the media will rise with a renewed momentum to support the One Household, One Bin project to succeed, saying if we have waste bins there in the households, the office premises, the hospitals, the schools, the churches and mosques and even the shrines and in the markets and streets, more than 90% of Ghana’s waste will no longer go into the gutters or public places by win to cause floods and disasters.
