Experts challenged to counsel government on environmental project

Accra, Jan. 29, GNA - Environment Experts were on Monday challenged to counsel governments on sustainable projects, which could be implemented without much degradation to the environment.

Addressing a Consultative Meeting on the activities of the Guinea Current Large Maritime Ecosystem (GCLME) in Accra, Mrs Gifty Ohene-Konadu, Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and President's Special Initiatives, said "future generations will not forgive us, if they come to meet deteriorated ecosystem, which cannot provide them with any economic livelihood". She said Africa abounds in a lot of natural resources, "but it is time for us to join hands and add value to these resources for both domestic consumption and export. This would create wealth for our people on sustainable basis".

The Deputy Minister said it was for this reason that the Ministry was promoting the development of the salt industry with the view to increasing production from the current 150,000 tonnes to 2,000,000 tones per annum.

The GCLME Project is one of United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) projects, to assist nations within the Guinea Current Region to overcome challenges of population and urbanization, fisheries depletion, water pollution, public health, sanitation and land use planning among other projects.

Mrs Ohene-Konadu said matters concerning the environment had become key issues in international development; hence industrial and commercial activities in Ghana were required to fulfil certain requirements under the environmental regulation LI 1652 of 1999.

"The problem is that, even though this regulation requires industries to operate within certain limits of emission or waste generation, it is silent on the methodologies and techniques. "It is for this reason why I see a corrective potential in the Cleaner Production Centre and waste recycling initiatives to drastically reduce waste and effluent discharged into the Guinea current zone". She said she was happy with the expansion of the GCLME membership from six to 16 countries, saying it would ensure that activities conducted in the different sectors of human life in all affiliated countries would be sustained to support the socio-economic development of the Region.

Dr Chika Ukwe, the UNIDO GCLMW Project Manager, told the Ghana News Agency that the aim of the project, which was the first of its kind in the world, was to promote a concerted management of major and emerging environmental issues. It would also monitor specific situations for the rapid resolution of critical environmental issues in the GCLME Region. He said the meeting aimed at building a consensus among member nations to ensure easy implementation.