CEO of Jospong Group of Companies has called on government to also consider a “waste system beyond aid” as it embarks on the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda.
According to Joseph Siaw Agyapong, getting rid of filth is critical as that would help attract more tourists and in turn generate more revenue for development projects and among other things boost foreign investment.
Addressing stakeholders at a sanitation forum in Accra Friday, Mr. Agyapong advocated for a sustainable sanitation financing and strong institutions that can help address the insanitary situations in Ghana.
“The more attention paid to sustainable sanitation financing beyond aid, not waiting for donors at their own time and leisure they give us money. We should find our own ways. And so the Ghana Beyond Aid, we should have Waste Beyond Aid and everything beyond aid,” he stressed.
He is upbeat President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s vision of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa is achievable and waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited is ready to support government in that regard.
Promoting tourism through waste management
Mr. Agyapong said Zoomlion has since its inception championed projects to change the face of sanitation in the country in order to promote international tourism.
This, he said explains why the waste management company introduced the Eco brigade in 2010 and other sanitation programmes to clean tourist sites, particularly all beaches in the country.
“We’re trying to promote tourism, all our beaches were very dirty. You see plastics and everything there. In the year 2010 we brought in the Eco brigade to clean all the beaches so that we can even have value more. Visitors come into this country and they want to go to the beach and this is where the problem is,” he said.
He further called for an enhanced ‘waste saving culture’ to avoid indiscriminate littering.
“We don’t have the culture of storing waste. In UK and other places waste bin is in the kitchen, waste bin is on the street, waste bin is on the airport so it changes automatically your culture… So the basis is what we’ve to instill that, let every house get a dustbin. So we started… and it’s working. We need just enhancement,” he said.
