Stop dumping refuse into the sea —TMA warns

The head of Waste Management Department of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), Mr. Edward Mba, has appealed to the people of Tema New Town to desist from dumping refuse, especially toxic and solid waste, into the sea as the practice tends to negatively affect the community and its people through the outbreak of diseases.

Mr. Mba said this when he addressed a gathering at an environmental sanitation durbar organised by Zoomlion Ghana Limited last Tuesday at Tema Newtown.

The programme forms part of a series of community-based environmental sanitation durbars rolled out by the company with the rationale of bringing together traditional authorities, sanitation experts, public officials and other community stakeholders together to brainstorm on how best to tackle the environmental sanitation problems the respective communities are faced with.

The chairman for the occasion, Nii Adjetey Agbo, the Manklalo of Tema, seized the opportunity to admonish the people of Tema New Town to endeavour to keep their environment clean and healthy.

This, he said, will go a long way to prevent diseases such as malaria and cholera in the community.

Nii Adjetey Agbo also called on the people to support the efforts of Zoomlion Ghana Limited in order to attain “our mutual goal of keeping the country green, clean and healthy.”

In a welcome address, the Tema Zone Manager of Zoomlion, Mr. George Aguadze, explained that “Zoomlion has created this platform so that each and every one of us, wherever we may find ourselves, can play an active role in educating people around us with regard to keeping our environment clean. It is also a fact that in whatever capacity we find ourselves – parent, teachers, pupils, and community leaders – we have very vital roles to play when it comes to sanitation education and awareness creation,” Mr. Aguadze added.

On his part, the Coordinating Director for TMA, Mr. Charles Kotey, maintained that environmental consciousness and good sanitation enhance the quality of “our health and socio-economic condition.”

He urged individuals in the community to play their part by keeping their immediate surroundings tidy, participating in periodic clean-ups and adhering strictly to environmental sanitation by-laws and guidelines concerning appropriate on-premises waste management and animal husbandry.

For her part, the Communications Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Isabella Gyau Orhin, thanked the people of Tema Newtown for the support they have given the company over the years and expressed the hope that the relationship will even grow better.

She re-echoed Zoomlion’s commitment to combine its waste management and environmental sanitation operations with various public education and sensitisation programmes to accelerate the attainment of Ghana’s sanitation goals.

She went on to mention some of the public education programmes the company has embarked on in the past such as the lorry park campaign, public education in Islamic communities and now community-based environmental sanitation durbars.

Mrs. Orhin maintained that “Zoomlion sees the individuals in the communities as major stakeholders in the sanitation industry and hence the need for these programmes.”

She also used the occasion to advise the school children present to act as peer educators in the fight against filth.