Regional forum on Plastic Waste Management organised in Takoradi

Plastic waste management has, over the years, become an albatross on the neck of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, which has culminated in the holding of a consultative forum in Takoradi by stakeholders, on possible ways of managing waste in the country .

The forum, which was organised by a committee tasked by President Mills to collate views on possible ways of stemming the tide, offered representatives of various institutions in the Sekondi Takoradi metropolis the opportunity to offer suggestions on ways of addressing the menace of plastic waste in the country.

A report put together by the seven-member committee was read by Mr. Peter Derry, an officer of the Ministry of Environment Science and Technology and a member of the presidential committee, before deliberations on the matter begun.

Addressing participants at the forum, the Deputy Western Regional Minister, Ms. Betty Bosomtwi-Sam, said it was time for the government and regulators to ensure compliance of the rules and regulations governing the management of waste in the country.

She emphasised that the rules and regulations regarding plastic waste generation and disposal should be spelt out clearly, because, as she put it, 'Environmental cleanliness should not be the exclusive concern of the assemblies, but the public as well.'

According to Ms. Bosomtwi-Sam, the situation where everything is thrown into a gutter is not only costly, but injurious to the health of the environment, flora, and fauna, and ultimately the people. 'Citizens should take responsibility to make their lives livelier and healthier,' she said.

According to the Deputy Regional Minister, the greatest damage done to humanity, as a result of plastic waste, was the adverse effects on agriculture.

'Plastic materials that unfortunately find themselves in the soil block the free movement of air and water in the soil (aeration), because of their resistance to decay, thus affecting the proper growth of food and cash crops.

She said in spite all the dangers associated with improper disposal of plastic waste, sanitation and waste management in the urban areas and their environments, continue to defy solutions, even with the commendable efforts of Zoomlion Waste Management Company and other private waste management companies.

'People continue to dump garbage into drains, and in fact, anywhere, with careless abandon,' she lamented.

According to Betty Bosomtwi-Sam, though efforts had been made to make life in the towns and cities habitable and disease-free, the local government authorities still have to grapple with sanitation and plastic waste management issues, environmental pollution, selling on pavements, vehicular congestion, poor urban network, cattle roaming on streets, and illicit drug peddling among the youth.

She said the menace of plastic waste was potential for plundering the National Health Insurance Scheme, because resources spent at health centers could be saved for other important things.

Ms. Bosomtwi-Sam said the perennial flooding that hit some major cities in the country annually, was a result of the dumping of plastic waste and other solid waste into drains, thereby making the communities prone to flooding, with its concomitant diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and cholera.

The participants, in their contribution, said that the plastic waste had become a great source of worry to national development, which called for concerted efforts to deal with the situation.

Some of them attributed the growing rate of waste in the country to indiscipline on the part of Ghanaians, which they said, was undermining the efforts of the authorities.