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Ghana to
celebrate Arbor Day
Accra, March 10, Ghanadot/GNA – Ms. Sherry Ayittey, Minister
of Environment, Science and Technology, on Tuesday said
Ghana would soon celebrate a national Arbor Day to help with
the process of greening the country.
Arbor Day is used to encourage the planting and caring for
trees.
The Minister said the celebration of the day would help
Ghanaians to appreciate and understand the importance of a
clean and sound environment.
Speaking at the forum on Environmental Sanitation, Ms.
Ayittey said the day would be celebrated similar to the
National Farmers’ Day where communities and schools that had
excelled in the planting of trees would be given awards at a
national ceremony.
She said they also intended to start this exercise prior to
the rainy season, so that trees planted by people especially
school children would grow well and would make it easy for
assessment.
The forum on the theme: “Cleanliness is next to
Godliness…Create in me a Clean Heart O God” brought together
all governmental institutions, including Ministries,
Departments and Agencies as well as civil society
organizations and NGOs in the sanitation sector to discuss
ways of finding a lasting solution to the sanitation
situation in Ghana.
The forum, which was supported by the World Bank, also had
the National Coalition of NGOs in Waste Management pledging
to monitor such environmental projects to ensure social
accountability.
Ms Ayittey said she believed that current strategies being
used to tackle environmental problems must be changed into a
long term multi-pronged planning approach.
“This will involve innovative and advanced technologies…I
wish to call on the Architectural and Engineering Services
Limited (AESL), Department of Urban Roads and District
Assemblies to consider in the future, designing roads with
covered gutters and as much as possible take measures to
cover all open gutters along the streets in the major cities
of the country.”
She pledged her ministry’s support for any new initiative
that will emerge from the forum.
Mr Paul Victor Obeng, Head of the Transition Team, who
chaired the Forum, said there was the need to find a
sustainable financing mechanism for the waste management
sector since we continually generate waste and should be
able to manage waste.
“The last time a check was done, government owed waste
management companies about 75 million cedis,” he said, and
pointed out that such situations could not continue.
He said there was the need for the country to be guided by
the cardinal principles of division of labour with
responsibilities and added that we are all part of the
problem and we must all be part of the solution.
“I hope that at some point in time we can be able to
overcome environmental sanitation problems,” he added.
A statement from the Environmental Protection Agency
stressed the need to put in place appropriate systems and
structures while defining clear roles and responsibilities
for the District Assemblies.
“It seems that either the District or Metropolitan
Assemblies which have operational responsibilities for waste
management do not see this role as their core function or
they have not been sufficiently resourced to undertake this
function.”
The EPA suggested that Ghanaians should start looking at
waste as a great economic resource and should start
segregating, recycling and re-using waste at the household
levels.
“Unless the waste management sector is recognized and
supported by sufficient human resource and training, the
sector will not attract qualified professionals,” the
statement said.
Mr Affail Monney, Vice President of the Ghana Journalists
Association, called on the media to ensure the success of
the initiative and urged government to develop a
communication plan that gave the media access to information
on sanitation and environmental issues.
GNA
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