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Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur
has called on Ghanaians to be aware of their civic responsibility and
be interested in helping to keep their communities clean.
He said the monthly clean up exercises should not just be in the
cities but also a re-awakening of the communal spirit that
characterised rural communities.
Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur
made the call when he inaugurated a Zoompak Waste Transfer Station and
Medical Waste Treatment Facility at Teshie in the Greater Accra
Region.
The two facilities which cost $7 million have the capacity to handle
1,300 tons of waste daily from the capital.
The objective of the project is to ensure that the waste transfer
station serves as a transit point to facilitate the delivery of
quality waste management services to the
populace.
Besides, the medical waste treatment facility is to manage all the
medical waste generated by the healthcare facilities with ultra-modern
technologies.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur noted that a year ago, the government
instituted the monthly National Sanitation Day clean-up
programme which was embraced by
many communities.
He stated that the issue of proper sanitation and waste management is
a collective responsibility.
He said while the government is making the needed investments to
improve waste management and sanitation, citizens also have a role to
safeguard their own lives by
placing their waste not in gutters but in bins so that it could be
carted off to designated disposal sites.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur also called on chiefs and opinion
leaders to take up the challenge and to lead the charge in ensuring
that people keep Ghana clean.
He commended the management of Zoomlion and Jospong Group of Companies
for their initiative and
the collaboration with foreign partners for the establishment of the station.
He expressed confidence that the
facility would help bring efficiency
to the waste collection efforts and
reduce significantly the wastes that
is engulfing the city.
Mr Nii Lante Vanderpuje, Deputy
Minister of Local Government and
Rural Development commended the
management of ZOOMPAK for the
initiative.
He said waste management is
becoming a daunting challenge with
its concomitant effect on growth
and development.
He said solid waste generated in
Accra is more than 2500 metric tons
and is hauled for about 32
kilometres to its final disposal sites.
Mr Vanderpuje said the location of
the transfer station in Teshie is
timely and strategic since the
facility would serve as a critical link
in making cost-effective, the work of
waste management in the region.
He said transferring waste to the
facility would reduce the daily
pressure on the various landfill
sites, adding that it has been a
long awaited appealing alternative.
He cautioned the management of
ZOOMPAK to ensure that in the
cause of operations the pieces of
waste, which would litter around
the station, are reduced to the
barest minimum.
Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, Chairman
and Chief Executive of Zoomlion and
Jospong Group of Companies
commended President John Dramani
Mahama and Vice President
Amissah-Arthur for their support for
the project.
He explained that the transfer
station was borne out of the
President and Vice President
Amissah-Arthur's vision to create a
healthy environment for Ghanaian
and also to maintain proper
sanitation in the country.
He said this was shown when Vice
President Amissah-Arthur joined
the cleanup exercise at Agbogboloshie when there was a sanitation
challenge and also supported the construction of the
Kokomlemle transfer station
Dr Agyepong also stated that over
the years the company has made
significant investments in the waste
management sector not just because of the business opportunities that
it provides but as a contribution to good public health.
He said the waste transfer station
is dumping ground for all the
tricycles and many waste collection
vehicles so that the waste could be
treated and compacted and then
sent to landfill sites.
This means that it would reduce
the turnaround times of the of the
small waste collection vehicles,
especially as they would no longer
have to travel long distances to
dump their waste at landfill sites.
Dr Agyepong also stated the facility
which is ISO certified has the
technology for handling medical
waste, which requires special
expertise and technical know-how.
He called on the local assemblies to
enforce the laws on sanitation by
ensuring that all residential facilities are made to have refuse bins
so that there could be a coordinated approach to waste
collection.
Credit: GNA
