Review sanitation laws - Zoomlion

A Senior Communications Officer of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Mr. Daniel Ohene Obeng, has stressed the need for the country to review its laws on sanitation to prevent avoidable disasters that have been happening in the country due to poor sanitation practices.

According to him, until that was done to compel people to do the right thing, Ghana will continue to experience disasters of such nature annually which paint a bad image for the country.

“Bola (garbage) business is not for Zoomlion alone so there is the need to review our sanitation laws to effect attitudinal change to help address the issues of flooding and other poor sanitation practices that cause a lot of lives and properties every year in this country,” he stated.

The communications officer said this during a press briefing organised by the communication department of Zoomlion for media practitioners in the Central Region on activities of Zoomlion for accurate reportage at Cape Coast at the weekend.

He opined that if sanitation laws were made stringent enough with offenders being compelled to pay heavy fines, people will be forced to do what is right.

“Why do we have to be so lenient when it comes to sanitation offences? Asking people to pay GH?5 and GH?10 for flouting sanitation regulation is improper and not punishment enough,” he observed.

“This is why people keep doing the same thing all the time even though they know the consequences of their actions after all they can pay the fines when caught,” he lamented.

Mr Ohene Obeng charged Ghana to emulate countries like Rwanda and Kenya that have very stringent law on sanitation and very cautious when it comes to sanitation practices.

He disclosed that Zoomlion set up Dredge Master last year after the June 3 disaster and is responsible for dredging major lagoons to avoid flooding in Accra.

“This year they have done a lot of desilting of gutters in Accra and are working hard to ensure free flow of water to control the flooding situation,” he explained.

He further disclosed that while Zoomlion has contributed a lot to improving sanitation in the country over the past 10 years, it has also created thousands of employment for people.

“We have the GYEEDA that has employed about 42,000, Sanitation Improvement Package Programme which has also employed over 600 people, National Mosquito Control Programme which has 5,000 employed and Sanitation Guards Programme which has also created 4,000 job opportunities for people,” he said.

He added that the company also has a compost and recycling plant in Accra which processes 600 tons of solid waste per day into compost and other recyclable materials which are distributed to farmers as fertilizers while a new plant will be commissioned in Kumasi before the end of the year.

Central Regional Director of the company, Mr. Samuel Adu, reiterated the need for the country to prioritise sanitation issues since poor sanitation has become a major canker in the country.

He advocated for the need to put sanitation issues into the country’s educational curriculum to nurture children at the early stage to follow while growing up.