Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies, Mr Joseph Siaw-Agyepong, has given the firmest of assurances that Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL) was ready and better positioned to lead the crusade in solving the country’s sanitation challenges.
According to him, Zoomlion, one of his companies, has all the state-of-the-art waste management equipment that one can think in the management of waste.
Mr Siaw-Agyepong made these observations at a sanitation forum organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) with support from ZGL, Citi FM, Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA) and Omni Bank.
The forum brought together think-tanks in the sanitation sector to deliberate on measures to ensure that the country’s cities were kept clean. It was on the theme: ‘Managing Sanitation: How To Lift The Nation From Filth.”
Dr Siaw-Agyepong stressed the need for enforcement of existing regulations and bye-laws to deal with the sanitation canker.
In this regard he indicated that Zoomlion was more than determined and ready to double its efforts in ensuring that the challenges that confronted the country’s sanitation were tackled head-on.
“We have too many laws in this country, but enforcing them is the challenge,” he bemoaned.
He also said that unless there was a change in the mindset of the public, the fight against filth could not be won.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in April last year made an audacious declaration to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa.
And following that announcement, ZGL has embarked on a number of interventions to help achieve the government’s agenda.
In the wake of the President’s agenda to move the country beyond aid, Dr Siaw-Agyepong said it was equally important to take the sanitation challenge beyond aid by supporting the private sector to tackle the situation aggressively.
He. therefore, used the platform to encourage Ghanaians to sustain the momentum on the national crusade until the country was rid of filth.
He emphasised the need to prioritise the use of refuse bins in households and public places to facilitate the collection of waste.
“The reality of the issue is that if we do not pay for waste collection, we are depriving the private sector from working diligently,’ he said, lamenting that service providers were not being paid promptly for their services.
He further stressed the need for attitudinal change, adding that “it does not matter if we collect all the waste all the time because without a change in our attitudes, we cannot go anywhere.
For his part, though the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, although blamed Zoomlion for the high level of filth in the country on Zoomlion, he equally commended the company for its efforts in helping to keep the cities clean.
According to him, government was in the process of reintroducing sanitation brigades and guards to support enforcement.
Director-General of Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Anthony Nisiah-Asare, stressed the need for a change in the attitude of Ghanaian concerning waste management.
He said until people refrained from destructive behaviour, particularly dumping of refuse indiscriminately, Ghana could not purge itself from filth.
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