As a global day commemorated to create awareness on the need to protect the environment, some schools in Damongo, the capital of the Savannah Region, in collaboration with an Environmental NGO, A Rocha Ghana have called on Ghanaians and the global community to reduce the use of plastic and also promote recycling of these wastes.
World Environment Day 2023 under the theme: “Beat Plastic Pollution” highlights the need for people to take actions on issues of plastic pollution.
The theme calls on governments, businesses and individuals to take steps to tackle plastic pollution. It is time to accelerate this action and transition to a circular economy.
In an interview on Damongo based Pad FM with Gogu Edwin, the Project Officer of A Rocha Ghana in Damongo, Mr. Isaac Kofi Ntori said the day is set aside to create awareness on the importance of the environment and the need to protect it for human’s survival.
This year’s theme draws our attention to take eminent actions to reduce the use of plastic to ensure sustainability of human and aquatic lives. He said “According to the United Nations Environmental Programme over 400 million tones of plastic is produced annually and less than 10% of these are been recycled with over 20 million discharged into our water bodies”.
Mr. Isaac outlined that, on days like this, A Rocha Ghana brings people together to advocate and create awareness for environmental protection.
He explained that “We at A Rocha, believe that children have some inherent love and care for nature, be it human and non humans but the quality this needs to be supported for perfection hence the reason to involve the students of Sir Martin’s Memorial school”.
As part of the celebration, an educational trip was organized for the students of Sir Martins to the Savannah Integrated Recycling and Composite Plant (IRECOP), Damongo to enlighten them on the operations of the facility.
The Operations Manager of the Center,
Mr. Bakuoro Isaac Suutonee took the students through the waste management processes which involve recycling and composting.
Mr. Bakuoro also indicated that the purpose of the plant is to ensure environmental sustainability by adding value to the plastic wastes whiles processing the organic waste to ensure that farmers get composts for improved farming in the area.
He expressed his happiness to see young students who are interested in plastic waste management, saying that if young people are educated on the environment, it will help sustain the environment. He therefore called on the students to visit the plant for more education about the environment and plastic waste management.
Miss Jasmine Kaliya Bahia, who won the Category “B” of last year’s World Environment Day Essay Competition on the theme #Only One Earth organized by A Rocha Ghana and its Partners, after visiting the recycling plant said, plastics are materials which can not be decomposed therefore should be recycled into different forms or better still cut it use, whiles the organic wastes should also be processed into compost for farmers in the region to reduce the use of chemical fertilizer and the struggle farmers go through before acquiring fertilizers.
Highlighting on her experiences last year she added that, the competition offered a lot of opportunities to stakeholders and individuals in managing the environment, therefore called for more of such competitions to enhance the understanding of the issues of the environment. ” I hope there will be another easy which can help more people to understand why we need to take care of the earth because if the earth is destroyed there is no other place that human beings and animals can inhabit”.
World Environment Day is an annual global event celebrated on June 05. It is observed to raise awareness on the protection and preservation of the environment. It is the biggest platform that advocates the practice of sustainable environmental management around the world.
Source: Padfm.com.gh
