Climate change may affect our health and wellbeing through the impacts of extreme events, worsening air quality, changes in the spread of infectious diseases, threats to food and water quality, and quantity and effects on our mental health.
It has therefore become critical that we do things in a different manner in order to build resilience to the effects of climate change and further help to slow its pace.
In this direction, the Abibinsroma Foundation has asked the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) to prioritise climate change issues.
The foundation believes that when this done, it will form an integral part of the assembly's plan in order to ensure a safe environment for the people of Tema.
The Foundation said as the Metropolis strives to develop the communities, the Assembly should also ensure that the people lived healthy lives, which was premised on healthy environmental practices.
This was made known to the Ghana News Agency at Tema by the Coordinator of Abibinsroma Foundation, Mr. Robert Amiteye on the sidelines of the on-going Community Needs Assessment Program organized by the TMA to review their activities for the past four years.
“Tema is an industrial hub, and we haven't seen anything from the Assembly in terms of climate change; Abibinsroma Foundation and the Coalition of NGOs in Tema, however, believe that climate change is of great concern and must be taken seriously.
“There ought to be a joint action to engage the industries on the amount of pollution they generate and how they channel them into the environment,” Mr. Amiteye explained.
Abibinsroma also tasked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to police the industries in order for them to observe the right standards in their operations to ensure a cleaner environment.
Mr. Amiteye said the development of the communities must go hand in hand with the preservation of the environment and urged the Assembly to prioritize the issue of pollution and not treat it as a secondary matter.
He said the interest of Abibinsroma and the NGO fraternity in taking an active part in the needs assessment program, was born out of the need to demand accountability because civil society had a role to play in the development of the Metropolis, “and Abibinsroma is here to champion climate issues”.
Other concerns raised by Abibinsroma during the first leg of the program at Tema Joint Church included the need to establish Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds even in urban centres to reduce pressure on existing health facilities, and the need to ensure community engagement in the wake of the Covid-19 vaccination program to get the needed patronage.
Abibinsroma called on all stakeholders within the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana to partake in the Performance Review and Community Needs Assessment meeting to influence a sustainable medium-term development plan.
The Medium-Term Development Plan is a mandatory requirement for MMDAs to engage stakeholders within their localities in order to have their inputs included in the four-year Medium Term Development Plan.
---GNA
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