Place environment on top of national agenda - Ministry

Accra, April 22, GNA - The Ministry of Environment and Science on Friday appealed to world leaders to place environment issues and protection of the earth on top of national agendas. In a statement issued in Accra to mark Earth Day, which falls on Friday, the Ministry said: "It is pertinent for us all citizens of planet earth to vow not to return to our old ways and bad habits of disturbing nature's order of functioning to prevent current and future disasters."

The statement noted that it was the responsibility of human beings to live in harmony with nature to restore and regenerate the diversity of life on earth through environmentally caring and thoughtful actions. "The earth's equilibrium cannot be maintained by the indiscriminate felling of trees, wanton destruction of wildlife and fauna, mining and galamsey operations in forests and at headwaters.

"Building houses on waterways; littering the cities and towns with plastics and other wastes, inappropriate farming and fishing practices, bush burning and the wanton destruction of biodiversity are clear manifestations of a people awaiting disaster."

The Ministry said the excessive consumption of resources, the pollution of the sea, air and land, poor and uncaring environmental considerations would only bring in their wake negative consequences detrimental to the present and future well-being of the people. It said the current situation where in most developing countries where issues of the environment came as an afterthought by policy makers and planners must give way to a strategic objective to integrate the needs of development, poverty alleviation and conservation into all aspects of development.

The Ministry noted that one of the cardinal concerns enshrined in the Ghana's National Action Plan on the Environment was awareness creation and public education, raising the consciousness of all Ghanaians about critical issues of protecting, preserving and scientific exploitation of the nation's natural and other resources.