The cleanest region in the country will soon be rewarded by Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), for its efforts towards keeping the environment clean. The objective hopes to whip up the interest of the citizenry especially stakeholders at the regional levels to improve proper sanitation in the country.
Alhassan Zakaria, the Chief Sub-Editor of the Gaily Graphic made this known in Bolgatanga during the Upper East Regional Stakeholders Dialogue on Sanitation.
The year-long activity which is a brainchild of the Graphic Communications Group Limited is sponsored by the leading waste management company in the country, Zoomlion Ghana Limited with support from Mcvities Biscuit.
The modalities to reward the cleanest region in the country will be published in the Daily Graphic in the coming days.
Mr. Zakaria stated that the sanitation awareness creation which is being organized in all the 16 regions of Ghana would drive behavioral change to help make Ghana the clean country its citizens yearn for.
“The whole goal is to complement the national sanitation effort and play our part in cleaning the environment. Having declared 2021 the year of sanitation, we are focusing on efforts to whip up enthusiasm in people to adhere to good sanitation.”
The Chief Sub-Editor of the Gaily Graphic called for a concerted effort towards the attainment of a clean country, saying, “when it comes to sanitation, it is not an individual business; it is a stakeholder involvement which includes all of us”.
Paramount Chief of the Talensi Traditional Area, Tong-Raan Kugbilsong Nalebgetang lauded the initiative by the Graphic Communications Group Limited and Zoomlion Ghana Limited for the effort they are playing to inculcate the habit of cleanliness among the public.
Tong-Raan who said indiscriminate littering of the environment contributes to communicable diseases such as cholera and diarrhea, admonished the public to always ensure that solid, liquid, and plastic wastes are properly disposed off the environment.
“Right now, what we are faced with is the plastics. Plastic waste is what we find in our part of the country; especially because anything people will buy; you will find it wrapped in plastic rubbers. During the dry season, if you look round the farms, you will find the whole of the farms scattered with plastic sheets especially the black rubbers. As you are aware, plastic doesn’t degrade and when they are left onto our farms, they create a layer that doesn’t allow us to get appropriate yields”, he lamented.
He has therefore called on Zoomlion Ghana Limited and other key stakeholders in the management of waste to constitute appropriate measures to manage plastic waste, especially with sachet water producers.
“Sachet water producing companies are comfortable in distributing water in plastics but I don’t know of any rule or regulation that enables them to pay for the plastics that they distribute and have them scattered all around. I will suggest that water-producing companies that use plastic should also pay for the plastics that they use in selling their water. Or find another means of distributing water”, he stated.
The Overload of the Talensi Traditional Area called on district assemblies to enact proper bye-laws to crack the whip on persons found littering the environment indiscriminately.
Senior Communications Officer, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Adams Mohammed Mahama regretted that despite the efforts by successive governments in tackling the sanitation menace, the situation remains the same.
In that regard, he said his outfit is partnering with traditional authorities and as well as using celebrity endorsement to tackle the threat.
He lamented the knee-jerk approach by citizens in tackling the poor sanitation in the country and called for attitudinal change among the public.
The dialogue brought together stakeholders from various relevant sectors to discuss the sanitation issues and find sustainable practical solutions.
The Graphic Communications Group Limited/Zoomlion Ghana Limited stakeholders dialogue on sanitation was under the theme ‘Keep Ghana Clean’.
GCGL and ZGL shall embark on a massive clean-up exercise at the Bolgatanga Main Lorry station at exactly 6:am on Tuesday, 16th November 2021.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Ghana
