Clergy asked to use the pulpit to talk about environment

Kumasi, Jan 5, GNA - Mr Peter Ossei-Wusu, the Ashanti Regional Co-coordinator of the Friends of the Earth, a non-governmental organisation, has called on the clergy to talk about the environment each time they mount the pulpit.

He said, "After all, cleanliness is said to be next to Godliness and more so the congregation would not only win souls for Christ but would also keep them clean and healthy".

Mr Ossei-Wusu said this when he interacted with a cross-section of the media on the environment and its effect on human development in Kumasi on Wednesday.

The Regional Co-coordinator stressed the need for ministers of state, traditional leaders and other newsmakers to at least devote part of their time on platforms to talk about the environment. He said "Until such concerns are shared by all and sundry and translated into action through the involvement of programmes that protect the environment, it will be difficult to do away with the high prevalence of diseases and calamities associated with poor environmental sanitation".

He said, "At 50, Ghana is old enough to clean up her stables, there is therefore the need to launch a massive campaign to increase people's knowledge and change their attitudes towards the environment". "We need to stop all the practices that harm the environment which later tend to inflict untold hardships on people." Mr Ossei-Wusu suggested that advertisements on the fight against malaria should be on cleanliness and not insecticides, coils and treated bed nets.

He was of the conviction that getting rid of mosquitoes would be far cheaper and more effective than fight malaria. "Until we are able to rid of that creature, we shall continue to need coils, bed nets and insecticides".