‘Intensify education on waste management’

STORY: BEATRICE DEDE ASIEDU

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST), Mr George Scott, has called on stakeholders in the waste management sector to intensify public campaigns on waste management to enhance environmental consciousness.

He said issues relating to sanitation and waste management were so important that it must concern all people in the country.

The MEST chief director was speaking on behalf of the sector Minister, Ms Sherry Ayittey, at a roundtable discussion organized by the George Benneh Foundation in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on recycling wastes for industrial use held in Accra.

The event, which was on the theme, “Recycling of waste into Industrial Products,” sought to discuss how wastes could be recycled into industrial use for other productive purposes.

He stressed that intensive education on waste management can help the public on proper decomposition of waste products.

Mr George Scott noted that it is no secret that Ghana, like many other countries, is challenged with how to manage its waste products and that heaps of waste are a common ugly sight in both rural and urban centres across the country.

“Even at the domestic level, one of the critical issues is what to do with the waste that is generated.

Clearly, our households today lack the capacity to manage the wastes they generate. What makes the situation worse is how to segregate waste products into what can decompose and what cannot decompose, making management of waste even more difficult,” noted Mr Scott.

He reaffirmed government‘s commitment in solving the problem of waste management thereby providing the broad regulatory framework to enable all stakeholders to operate.

“The government is committed to solving the problem of waste management thereby providing the broad regulatory framework to enable all stakeholders to operate.

It has also put the appropriate policies and legal regimes in place to regulate environmental issues,” he indicated.

He also disclosed that MEST has started a process of reviewing and updating the National Environmental Policy which will set the ball rolling for the implementation of appropriate strategies on waste management across the cities and towns in the country.

The chief director charged participants to come out with recommendations that will inform government on policies of sanitation and waste management.

Mr Scott commended the George Benneh Foundation for mooting the idea to bring researchers together on one platform to discuss waste management in Ghana.