A sensitisation workshop on plastic waste management for pupils in selected schools in the La Dade-Kotopon Municipality of the Greater Accra region has been held in Accra.
It was organised by Ecological Restoration Club, an NGO, in collaboration with the Municipal Assembly on Tuesday on the theme “Strengthening capacity for integrated plastic waste management in the Municipality”, and funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The Executive Director of the club, Mr Emmanuel Odjam-Akumatey, explained that the second phase of the event was to equip pupils and environment health officers with requisite knowledge and skills to enable them to carry out their responsibilities effectively.
Mr Odjam-Akumatey said, the pupils were serving as ambassadors to bring change in plastic waste management in the schools and communities, while the staff of the assembly were to use the knowledge gained to assist in effective environmental management in the municipality.
According to him, the clubs major challenge was inadequate designated points and bins for waste collection.
The executive director said, the environmental waste department officers must be up and doing by supervising and monitoring waste collectors to ensure that environmental waste officers were discharging their duties accordingly.
Mr Odjam-Akumatey said due to this, the club presented two guide lines for pupils to use in their day-to-day plastic waste management activities and the other document had to do with the enforcement of plastic waste management by laws and policies
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE),Solomon Kotey Nikoi, said plastic waste pollution directly affected the livelihoods, food production capacities and the social well-being of most people in the municipality, and there was the need for stringent measures to be enforced to protect and conserve the environment and natural resources.
Mr Nikoi stressed that activities such as poor waste management, illegal mining and logging, pollution, bush burning and continues cropping were some causes of environmental degradation and climate change.
“In order to ensure a sustainable development in waste management, stakeholders need to ensure that stringent measures are enforced to prevent certain bad human activities to protect and conserve our environment and natural resources from being destroyed, “ he said.
Mrs Habiba Kotomah, Municipal Education Director said, the event was basically to engage the pupils who had earlier participated in a similar workshop to know their progress and challenges as ambassadors of plastic waste management in the municipality.
Mrs Kotomah said, the assembly had instituted a waste management initiative in all schools to clean their surroundings on fridays of every month.
BY VICTOR A. BUXTON
