Jospong reaffirms commitment, support for Government’s sanitation initiatives

The Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, has accentuated his support and commitment towards the government’s sanitation agenda. Dr Agyepong was reacting to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s pledge last Thursday during the State of the Nation address.

Dr. Agyepong lauded the government and the President for focusing on the environment and also pledging resources to make Ghana and its capital Accra very clean, he reassured the president of the private sector readiness to partner the government as it had done over the years to achieve its dream of ensuring proper sanitation for all.

He stressed that the dream of all waste management companies is to see a clean environment that would ensure the good health of the people of Ghana and thus ensure high productivity in all sectors of the economy.

The Executive chairman stressed that the sanitation sector needs the right policies, strict law enforcement, support and a positive attitude from government agencies and officials taxed with ensuring the sanitation needs of the country, to engender fruitful partnership with the private sector.

“Over the years Zoomlion and other affiliate companies have been doing their best to ensure we all live in a clean and healthy environment but we cannot do much if the government does not support those of us in the sector,” he said.

Dr. Agyepong also called for government’s support for all waste management companies, emphasizing that we have the capacity and the technical knowhow in Ghana and by Ghanaian’s to solve any waste management challenge.

Zoomlion Ghana Limited over the twelve years of its operation has transformed the waste management industry in Ghana through the introduction of an integrated waste management solutions. This include mechanized door-to-door waste collection system, waste transfer station, medical waste treatment plant, composting and recycling plants, waste water and faecal treatment plant, engineered landfill and dredging as well.

President’s take on sanitation

Touching on sanitation in his over an hour long delivery of the State of the Nation address in the House of Parliament last Thursday, President Akufo-Addo decried the state of sanitation in Ghana’s cities, describing it as “wholly unacceptable.”

He said “Our cities have been engulfed by filth. There is the urgent need for public authorities to find means of making our cities clean, and, in the case of Accra, fulfilling my pledge, one of the most ambitious of my presidency, to make it the cleanest city in Africa, by the end of my term.”

President Akufo-Addo stated that the government was working with various private sector operators to tackle the major challenge of poor sanitation in the country, with strategies that were intended to effect a change in attitudes towards waste generation, as well as improve dramatically the methods of waste management.

Adding that the strategies would be “complemented by the strict enforcement of sanitation rules and regulations,” the President also said “urgent attention will be given to clearing of rubbish all around the country.”

Further, systematic efforts would be made to resolve the legacy of inherited debts in the sector, he said, announcing that “Government will spend, this year, an amount of GH¢200 million to address the vexed issue of sanitation.”

Dr Agyepong expressed optimism that the President would realise his dream of a clean and remarkably improved sanitation situation in the country as well as a healthy people by next year if the needed support is given to all sanitation sector players and a strong partnership is formed between private and state actors in the sector.