Zoomlion to embark on sanitation campaign
Zoomlion Ghana Limited is to embark on a public education and information campaign on sanitation in an exercise dubbed, 'Clean Ghana Campaign'.
The exercise, which is scheduled to take off on Saturday, 24 January, 2009, is geared towards ensuring complete cleanliness in the aftermath of the Christmas festival and election, which brought together many people, leading to increased accumulation of refuse in Accra.
The campaign is a Zoomlion-Media collaboration on public education programmes and clean-up exercise which is in line with and in support of government"s initiative to keep Ghana clean for the years ahead.
Addressing the media at the launch of the campaign, the public relations officer of Zomlion, Oscar Provencal, indicated that the exercise would be followed by a clean-up exercise in collaboration with MMDA's and other stakeholders.
According to Oscar, since the inception of the company three years ago, it had embarked on countless clean-up exercises and initiatives to rid the nation of filth; and as part of its social responsibilities, it had also embarked on a number of campaigns with various stakeholders to ensure that the country was kept clean and beautiful at all times.
He pointed out that the company"s major challenge had been with the negative behavioural patterns of the general public, and "until people changed their habit, no amount of clean-up exercises or refuse collection can help improve the sanitation situation at hand.'
"It is against this background', he said, 'that we at Zoomlion discover the media a non - negotiable partner and stakeholder in the fight against the menace that has eaten deep into the fiber of our society.Without the media partners, the fight against the ever recognized challenges facing environmental sanitation will be in vain.'
The public relations officer said, 'In our bid to foster change in the habits of our citizenry, Zoomlion recently called upon media houses to design environmental sanitation programmes that are geared towards attitudinal change and some people have responded to this call.
He therefore urged other media houses that had not responded to their request to do same, and invited the Coalition of NGOs in water and sanitation, journalists in health and sanitation, the Ghana Journalists Association, resident associations, keep fit clubs and religious bodies to fully support the campaign by submitting their public education initiatives to Zoomlion for collaboration, and bringing to their attention problem areas for the necessary actions to be taken.
The MP for Ayawaso East, Mustapha Ahmed who was the guest of honour for the occasion, commended Zoomlion for embarking on this bold initiative to help in executing the President's vision of cleaning Ghana within hundred days.