Accra, April 12, GNA-The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment in conjunction with Zoomlion, a waste management company, on Thursday began a two-day cleanup exercise around the confluence of the Korle Lagoon following the dumping of huge volumes of plastic waste after last week's rain in Accra.
The plastic waste has not only become an eyesore, but is also affront to the tourism industry as well as a disgrace to the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem Commission, which has its headquarters in Ghana.
The GCLME Project involves 16 countries along the Gulf of Guinea, stretching from Senegal to Angola with the aim of combating living resources depletion and coastal area degradation through ecosystem-based actions.
The Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, said the Ministry was not only liaising with GCLME, but also with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to keep the beaches clean and restock mangroves, the spawning ground for some fish stocks.
He said apart from the plastic waste menace, having its toll on waste disposal management, it was also affecting the life of the fishes since after almost every downpour the major drains, which were already choked with plastic waste, were drained into the sea. Mr Boateng said the programme that had already begun with Zoomlion would not be a nine-day wonder, but would be sustained right from Keta to Axim since it was the belief of the GCLME Project that anything that affected the coastline and fishes in one country could affect the other countries because fishes were migratory species. Mr Boateng appealed to the fishing communities to be involved in the cleanup exercises on the beaches since it was good that their fishing areas were maintained and cleaned periodically. He said if the beaches were not kept clean and filth was left over a period of time, some people might turn such areas into dumping sites, as was the case in some communities. "We have to stop all manner of persons from dumping and defecating on the beach.
"As a country, we all need to be concerned about what happens to our beaches not only for tourist interest but also for the sake of our fisheries resources many people rely on fish for their protein needs," he said.
Mr Lawrence Laryea, Head of Operations, Zoomlion, said the company hoped to cart away all the rubbish from the beach by Saturday. He said 220 workers of Zoomlion from all the sub-metros had been recruited for the exercise at James Town Beach whilst similar exercises were also ongoing at Osu, La and Teshie.
He said a number of roll-on, roll-off trucks of 23 cubic metre capacity had been assigned for the clean-up at James Town Beach. The GNA noticed that some fishermen who had gone to sea and returned at about 0900 hours caught very little fish in their nets but a lot of rubbish, mainly plastic waste. Mr Laryea said there were plans for Zoomlion to establish a plastic recycling plant before the end of the year.
