COMMENT: Creative solution addressing Virgin Atlantic Airways' concerns

It is important that those who lead our nation, think creatively, when confronted with problems.

Instead of being embarrassed by Virgin Atlantic Airways' decision to stop flying to Ghana because of the high cost of aviation fuel, the minister of transport, Hon. Dzifa Aku Attivor, ought to seize it as an opportunity to get Virgin Atlantic Airways and the other airlines that fly here, to support a bio-diesel initiative in Ghana.

That bio-diesel initiative, will also help repair some of the environmental damage caused by illegal gold mining around the country - killing two birds with one stone, as it were.

The idea is that, all the gold mining companies in Ghana will be encourage to contribute to an environmental restoration fund.

Out of that fund, rural co-operatives, made up of unemployed people, will plant vertiver grass and jetropha trees around the country, to help repair some of the damage to the natural environment, caused by illegal gold mining.

Vertiver grass has been shown to be very effective in removing toxic material from soils.

Those rural co-operatives will also plant jetropha trees to supply jetropha nuts to a number of bio-diesel production units (perhaps co-owned by the Virgin Group and District Assemblies as PPP projects) around the country, to produce bio-diesel for Virgin Atlantic Airways and other interested airlines, which fly to Ghana, and are keen to use a green fuel, as their contribution to the fight against global warming.

The vertiver grass planted by the rural co-operatives will remove the poisonous heavy metals and chemicals, which have leeched into the soil in areas where gold mining has ended.

Seedlings of vertiver grass for the rural co-operatives to plant around the country, in areas in the countryside damaged by illegal gold mining, can be acquired from a 5-acre nursery at Bunso, owned by Dr. Dale Rachmeler (of Business Advocacy Challenge Fund (BUSAC) fame).

As a CSR initiative, the association of small-scale gold miners could also pay the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's (CSIR) Plant Genetic Resources Centre of Bunso, to produce seedlings of jetropha for the rural jetropha and vertiver grass planting co-operatives.

That is a creative solution, which apart from creating jobs in rural Ghana, will also produce bio-diesel for use by airlines flying in and out of Ghana - whiles using vertiver grass to repair some of the environmental damage caused by illegal gold mining in Ghana.

All the airlines that fly to Ghana could be asked to contribute to a fund to implement the idea - which will enable each one of them to enhance their individual corporate image respectively: funding a CSR bio-diesel (and vertiver grass) initiative, which produces a green fuel for airlines and also helps repair the harm caused to the environment by illegal gold miners.

Ghana's minister for transport, Hon. Dzifa Aku Attivor, can fine-tune the idea with Virgin Atlantic Airways' highly-creative founder, Sir Richard Branson, and the other airlines that fly here, to produce a workable initiative from the seed of the idea I have just planted.

It is a simple and creative solution to address Virgin Atlantic Airways' concerns, which led to its departure from Ghana. A word to the wise...