The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) in the Western Region on Thursday launched a climate change education campaign for schools at the Ahanta Mampong M/A Basic School.
The event is part of STMA Urban Climate Change Resilience cluster of the project, under the Twin Cities in Sustainable Partnership Project (TCSPP).
The three-year TCSPP project, being implemented in the cities of Sekondi-Takoradi and Palermo (Italy), with funding from the European Union (EU), aims to enhance the capacity of STMA to address challenges of urban sprawl, climate change and internal revenue generation.
Coordinator of TCSCP, Isaac Aidoo, explained that partnership with the schools was to ensure they lead the education campaign with the goal of increasing the awareness of the general public on climate change issues.
He also outlined the formation of climate clubs in schools and organised radio programmes, adding that “sustaining the positive results had been a challenge – threats still remain and people’s risk to disasters are still present in the metropolis.”
The Metropolitan Education Director, Mrs Nelly Sally Coleman, noted that climate change, the long term alternation of temperature and weather patterns was a global issue that affected everyone on the planet.
She added “The earth’s climate has changed many times, but, the current trend is different because it is happening much more quickly – and we are releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than before, and so, Earth’s temperature will continue to increase with devastating consequences for human society and life on our planet.”
Climate Change Desk Officer at the Metro Office of National Disaster Management Organisation, Mrs Ophilia Eshun Mills, also spoke about the difficulty in weather forecasting and the depletion of the ozone layer with dire effects on rising sea levels in communities like Nkontompo.
“The sea keeps rising, rains are falling heavily, causing flooding on our communities. Let’s plant a tree when we celebrate our birthdays and stop using pavement blocks in our homes and environment to prevent climate change. This calls for our collective responsibility and action,” she said.
Launching it, the Metropolitan Chief Executive, STMA, Abdul-Mumin Issah, appealed to community leaders to champion the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 13- ‘climate actions’.
This, he argued, would contribute to realisation of the Assembly’s vision to create a world-class city with modern infrastructure, social services, best governance, attractive business and living environment, saying that agriculture production continued to be the backbone of every nation’s economy.
He reported, however, that some practices across nations continued to negatively impact on the natural environments.
Most farmers, for example, Mr Issah said, cut down forests to cultivate their produce and thereby reducing the quality of natural forests and vegetation cover.
Again, he said, the pressure to convert lands into agribusiness such as crops production and livestock rearing had increasingly led to the depreciation of natural environments such as forests and wildlife.
FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, AHANTA MAMPONG
