Zoomlion extends sanitation education to communities

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

The Ashanti Regional Manager for Zoomlion Mr. Gyekye Darko

Zoomlion Ghana Limited, has as part of the company’s effort to drive the message of good environmental sanitation deep down the heart and mind of every single Ghanaian in Ghana, rolled out series of community-based environmental sanitation durbars aimed at bringing all stakeholders in the community together to brainstorm about how to push forward the “Clean Ghana” agenda together as a people.

The programme, which kicked off Saturday, 29^th October, 2011 at Mamponteng in the Kwabre East District of the Ashanti Region, had the Akyeamehene of the town, Nana Oppong Bretuo chairing the durbar, with Mr. Richard Amoaning, Ashanti Regional Environmental Health Officer delivering a lecture on a wide range of environmental sanitation issues.

Speaking to a fairly large crowd made up of all classes of people in the Mamponteng Township including school children, traders, Assembly Members as well as Zoomlion staff, Mr. Amoaning stressed on the fact that about 70 percent of all cases reported at Ghana’s health facilities in recent times are sanitation related, including malaria, typhoid and diarrhoea.

Making reference to the recent floods in Accra that claimed several lives and destroyed property worth millions of Cedis, Mr. Amoaning admonished the people to desist from indiscriminate littering and dumping of refuse, as such practices prove to be detrimental to the whole community in the long run.

Also addressing the crowd, the Ashanti Regional Manager for Zoomlion, Mr. Gyekye Darko, exhorted members of the general public to make the effort to change their poor environmental habits so that the country will be free from the grave consequences of pollution and other forms of environmental degradation.

In a similar development, several hundreds of people from all walks of life in the Tamale Metropolis gathered at the forecourt of the Dakpema’s Palace to participate in the Community Environmental Sanitation Forum, as the second edition of the programme took off in the Northern Regional capital.

Chairman for the occasion, the Dakpema of Tamale, who arrived at the grounds amid wild cheers, jubilation and beautiful display of the rich culture of the people of Central Tamale, was full of praise for such an initiative from Zoomlion. He opined that bringing such an environmental sanitation awareness campaign so close to the people will really bring an impact on their mentality and behaviour as far as sanitation is concerned.

When he took his turn to address the crowd, Mr. Abdallah Abdullah, Northern Regional Manager, Zoomlion, explained to the chief and the entire gathering the rationale behind the community-based Environmental Sanitation Durbar, which he said was an effort to involve the individual community members at the grassroots to team up with authorities and waste management operators, to find lasting solutions to the sanitation problems in the country.

Mr. Abdullah further expressed his company’s utmost gratitude to the people for responding massively and prayed each and every individual to participate in the events of the day to make the programme successful.

On his part, the Public Relations Officer for Zoomlion, Mr. Oscar Provencal, who led the Zoomlion team from Accra, admonished the people to begin to teach their children “the basics of personal hygiene and waste management at home so that they will grow to become a more environmentally-conscious generation in the future.” Mr. Provencal reiterated the need for concerted efforts at keeping the environment clean, if Ghanaians want to enjoy long and quality life.

Both durbars provided an opportunity for other opinion leaders as well as members of the general public to share their thoughts on the sanitation situation in Ghana’s communities and how to improve upon it.

A section of the gathering at the Tamale durbar