The Executive Director of A Better Community for All (ABC4All), Mr Billy Yasin, has commended the Nungua Mantse for urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Town and Country Planning to take urgent action to stop activities that caused destruction to water bodies in the Greater Accra Region.
Mr Yasin said Professor Oboade Notse King Odaifio Welentsi III, the Nungua Mantse, made the right call and appealed to other state institutions, including the Ministry of Tourism, the Ghana Tourism Authority and the various assemblies to support this cause.
He said Ghana could rake in more revenue from tourists when water bodies are clean and healthy.
Mr Yasin said tourists were not attracted to Ghana because most water bodies which should serve as tourist sites were engulfed in filth.
He said countries like France, Mexico, South Korea, Israel, Germany and United Kingdom (UK) received more visitors every year because a lot of investments were made into keeping their tourist sites, including water bodies, clean.
Mr Yasin urged chiefs, opinion leaders, youth groups and religious leaders to support the Nungua Mantse.
“Prof. Oboade Welentsi III deserves everybody’s support. The Nunga Mantse is a wise, smart and intelligent King. He has made the right call. And I am ready to work with him to make water bodies in the Greater Accra Region clean.”
He said the appeal made by Prof. Welentsi III was in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 and 13, which relates to good sanitation and water for all by 2030.
He said the United Nations in 2015 established the 17 SDGs which aims to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that people enjoy peace and prosperity.
He said Goal 6 talked about clean water and sanitation with the ultimate ambition to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, end open defecation, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping, and minimising the release of hazardous chemicals and materials on the environment by 2030.
The Nungua Mantse has appealed to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Town and Country Planning to take urgent action to stop activities that were destroying the water bodies in the Greater Accra Region.
He lamented at the rate at which dangerous human activities such as indiscriminate disposal of waste and land reclamation were destroying water bodies.
The Nungua Mantse said water bodies like Obenesu in Osu, Kpeshie in La, Sango in Teshie, Sakumo in Nungua, Tsemu in Tema, Korle in Korle Gonno, and others in the Dangme districts have all been affected by the dangerous and illegal human activity.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
