Stakeholders demand the phasing out of plastic materials

Stakeholders at a day’s forum on cleanliness of the beaches held in Sekondi have called for the phasing out of the use of plastic materials.

The stakeholders, made up of civil society, fishermen, assembly members and representatives of various institutions came up with the suggestion at the forum organized by the “Save Our Beaches Ghana”, an Accra based NGO which has focus on the cleanliness of the country’s beaches.

It was held on the theme “Our beaches, our heritage and our role’.

The stakeholders said though the suggestion might not favour some people and institutions that was the solution to a sound, clean and healthy environment and the beaches as the plastic waste was menace to society.

Dr Augustine Kwesi Amoako, Senior Medical Officer at the Essikado Government Hospital, said 85 percent of pollution at the beaches and sea were plastics generated on the land caused by human activities.

He said pollution at the sea and off shore had health implication as they affected the marine creature which is passed on to humans through consumption thus affecting the human organs.

Mr Kobina Okyere Darko-Mensah, MP for Takoradi, called for the active involvement of traditional authorities in sanitation issues as they were in direct contact with the people and could easily impress on them to take up the task.

Mr Darko-Mensah called for strict enforcement of the regulation on sanitary matters and also empower the City Guards to cause the arrest those who break sanitary laws.

Mr Shine Fiagome, an Environmental officer at the Western Regional Office of the Environmental Protection Agency in Sekondi, said environmental issue was a shared responsibility of all stakeholders.

He therefore entreated people to play their role for the nation to have a healthy environment.

Paa Kwesi Wilson, Executive Director of the Save Our Beaches Ghana, said filthy surroundings at the beaches prompted the formation of the NGO to ensure that sanity prevailed at the beaches.