School pupils have been called upon to champion healthy sanitary conditions to safeguard the environment and promote sustainable growth.
The Accra Metropolitan Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Ebenezer Tetteh-Wayo, who made the call in Accra on Friday said pupils were used as agents of change in developed countries, hence the need for the nation to involve the younger generation at every stage of the developmental agenda.
Speaking at a short ceremony of a presentation of 200 T-shirts to the NCCE by Ms Martha Adjoa Annan, the Innovations Manager of JVL, a waste Management Company, Mr Tetteh-Wayo, urged the pupils to be more responsible and vigilant in the area of protecting the environment.
The items would support the annual citizenship week celebration organised by the NCCE and forms part of a project meant to educate and inculcate in pupils the habit of keeping their surroundings clean.
According to Mr Tetteh-Wayo, the vision of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa would only be achieved if the youth realised their role as active citizens with the patriotic task to build a vibrant economy.
The Accra Metropolitan Director of the NCCE, who received the items, assured that it would serve as a reminder for the schools within the metropolis to actively partake in the exercise.
Mr Tetteh-Wayo indicated that most of the basic school pupils littered around and underscored the need to engender a healthy discourse among them through public education.
“The NCCE will use its platform to promote a healthy discourse among the youth through public education so that they will imbibe good attitudes and behaviour on sanitation for sustainable development,” he said.
Earlier, Ms Annan observed that a healthy environment promoted healthy living, adding that, once children were nurtured to be part of a community in safeguarding the environment, “they tend to re-examine their sanitation practices.”
She explained that JVL, being a waste management company with a vision to improve the environment and health conditions of the citizenry, saw it mandatory to support NCCE to foster discipline in pupils to uphold good environmental practices.
Speaking on the theme ‘Clean Ghana, our responsibility,’ she said everyone had the responsibility to clean the environment and targeting the mindset of the young ones would make the project successful.
The Administrative Manager of JVL, Mr Felix Laryea, on his part, charged individuals to properly manage their waste and stressed the need for the nation to reuse and recycle plastic and organic waste into other useful products as a form of generating revenue for the economy.
BY JOYCELINE NATALLY CUDJOE
