Executive Chairman Ghana’s leading waste and sanitation service provider, Zoomlion Limited, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, has lauded the pledge by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to make “Accra the cleanest City in Africa in the next four years”.
He said, the pledge feeds into the company’s vision of championing clean, green and healthy communities.
President Akufo-Addo made the pledge Sunday in Accra, when he was enstooled as a Chief of Jamestown under the stool name Nii Kwaku Ablade Okogyeaman I.
“The commitment I want to make, and for all of us to make, is that by the end of my term in office, Accra will be the cleanest city on the entire African continent. That is the commitment I am making,” the President said
This vision, Dr. Agyepong said is attainable and requires a concerted effort from all Ghanaians including the government and the citizenry, noting that environmental sanitation issues is a shared responsibility that requires everybody’s input.
Dr. Agyepong who is also the President of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA) asserted that environmental sanitation coupled with effective waste management has a great potential of making Ghana a destination of choice for investors and tourists.
“The major challenge which slows down work in this industry is the attitude of people and the enforcement and promulgation of stringent by-laws which will regulate waste management in all sectors of the economy”, he stated.
He said, the waste and sanitation industry is dominated by indigenous business men and women whose contribution to national development goes beyond waste collection.
He explained that in addition to ensuring a clean and green environment, the sector also “help to improve the health the general wellbeing of the people, creates thousands of jobs for both the young and the old in various sanitation modules whileprofits from our business operations are also reinvested in the Ghanaian economy”, he added.
Dr. Joseph Agyepong said the Waste, Environment and Sanitation industry has the potential of making the Government’s one district one factory vision a reality.
“The industry, provides waste collection and haulage, recycling- both organic and inorganic, solid waste, medical waste and faecal waste treatment and landfills management among others with modules that can be replicated in the various districts,” he stated
He indicated that Zoomlion alone has for the past 10 years made a lot of interventions in the waste and sanitation sector providing integrated waste management solutions, including the introduction of simple but modern technologies, recycling and manufacturing facilities, transfer stations, and medical and faecal waste treatment plants among others.
The company in collaboration with other sister companies are dredging the Odaw river to curb the perennial flooding of the city during the raining season.
Dr. Agyepong pledged the support of the various environmental service providers to the government in ensuring that Accra becomes the cleanest city in Africa. He also called on the citizenry to change their attitudes and stop indiscriminate littering to support the Presidents vision.
He also called on the city authorities to enforce existing bye-laws on waste management and environmental sanitation to promote discipline.
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