We need attitudinal change on waste management - UEW students

Counselling and Guidance group of the University of Education, Winneba has attributed Waste Management challenges in the country to mainly erroneous attitudes in people.

They, therefore, emphasised the need for all and sundry to be law abiding, and to be responsible to change attitudes and behaviours to change the status quo.

They called on government to equip its sector agencies to enable them enforce laws and by-laws on waste management to help address the canker for the country to realise its dream of becoming like America, Europe and other developed countries.

Mr Kobby Apo Arthur, Felix Ofori-Botwe and Yahaya Fuowie on behalf of their colleagues stated this in a power point presentation at a durbar they organised to sensitise people in Winneba on effects and implications of poor waste and sanitation management and the role of society for the way forward.

The programme was on the theme “Waste Management: A Challenge to national development”.

Participants were schooled on waste management, current state of waste management in the country, Winneba in perspective, challenges of Solid and liquid waste management, Effects and Implications of poor waste management that include flooding, contraction of communicable diseases, climate change, coastal and marine environment, soil contamination, financial and Counselling implications in addressing waste management.

According to them Inadequate equipment and operational support to waste management activities and unplanned human settlement, lack of political will to enforce by-laws contributed to poor waste management in the country”.

They called on Agencies and Institutions to live up to their mandate by ensuring that proper interventions were effected to make it convenient for people to live under basic waste and sanitary conditions.

Ghana performed creditably well in five out of eight of the Millennium Development Goals which sought at creating a needed environment but performed abysmally in environmental sustainability mainly because of weak environmental monitoring and enforcement laws and systems.

“Annually the country produces 1.7 million tonnes of plastic waste which could be recycled to produce affordable and sustainable building materials”.

Information gathered from Effutu Environmental Office indicates that Winneba produces 28 tonnes of waste daily, and in 2014 the Effutu Assembly had 25 central refuse containers and as at December 2017 reduced to 10, with 10 tricycle operators and only two waste trucks which is not enough.

They said Zoom lion Company LTD is the only waste management company managing waste in the municipality at the moment and with 20 approved dumping sites, and since 2014 to date, the municipality had no engineered landfills sites.