An Environmental Advocate and CEO of Free Nation Movement Ghana, Nana Nontwiri Opoku Castro, has called for the need for Ghana to encourage domestic waste segregation to address sanitation challenges in the country.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on sanitation challenges in Kasoa in the Awutu-Senya East Municipality, he noted that an aggressive approach was the way to go.
The Awutu-Senya East Municipality with its district capital at Kasoa and adjoining communities are bedevilled with sanitation issues mostly heaps of refuse on the streets and in market places.
He said, waste segregation was key in waste management as it would help to reduce communicable diseases and floods in the capital cities across the country.
He said, it was possible with intensive and consistent public education to encourage the populace to practice waste segregation.
Mr Nontwiri said segregated waste recycling plant could provide employment for the teeming youth and the government and other stakeholders must invest in that venture.
He stated that there were available melting machines for melting plastic wastes that government could purchase for recycling purposes to manufacture products or sell to companies to manufacture plastic products.
According to him, currently, the Chinese purchases the few collected plastics, melt and export to manufacture products.
He pointed out that encouraging waste segregation would also help avoid flood, create employment, improve agriculture and quality health.
Mr Nontwiri emphasized that aggressive approach was required to tackle sanitation in the municipality by committing resources including funding, transport, and a dumping site.
He said this would facilitate provision of waste bins, collection of domestic refuse and safe disposal, thereby, enhancing clean environment.
In addition, the assembly could effectively support an environmental taskforce to arrest individuals who dump domestic wastes on the streets and in the market places and punished to serve as a deterrent to others, he said.
He added that, Free Nation Movement Ghana, would be launching an initiative dubbed; “Operation Adiibekilwu” to wit “Someone will catch you” to undertake activities including collection of wastes and monitoring hotspot to arrest individuals who dump wastes in the streets and market places.
