My Ghana Electronic Desk

EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Ghana’s Vice President, H. E. John Dramani Mahama, will launch an Environment Channel, a path breaking television series dedicated to the environment on Thursday 29 April 2010 at Silverbird Cinemas, Accra Mall, Accra. The Environment Channel, to be broadcast on a national television network, “hopes to make environmental issues relevant to the daily lives of Ghanaians and bring home the importance of reversing environmental degradation in all spheres of our lives,” according to a press release issued by communications company and producers of the 10-part series, Creative Storm. Speaking to the issue of environmental degradation, Vice President John Mahama, said “We are drowning in plastics, our environment is so polluted and this is not only an urban phenomenon. You go to the smallest village and there are plastics all over the place. Even the livestock are chewing plastics and dying.” In an interview with this reporter, Creative Storm said the company is curre...

EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Two presidents have been announced as winners of the 2010 Champions of the Earth Awards, which is the United Nations’ highest awards for environmental leadership. The two are the President of Guyana, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo and President of the Maldives, His Excellency Mohamed Nasheed. They are part of a total of six winners who were announced Thursday April 22, 2010 in Seoul, Republic of Korea, drawn from the worlds of government, science, business and entertainment. All the awardees, including the presidents will for the first time since the awards was introduced receive cash amounts of US$40,000 for each of the categories. Announcing the award recipients for this year, a press release from the United Nations Environment Programme, stated that each of them exemplifies how action, inspiration, personal commitment and creativity can catalyse a transition to a low carbon, resource efficient 21st-century Green Economy. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and U...

EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A report of the UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking Water (GLAAS), produced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has warned that there remains a huge financial gap to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for water and sanitation. It said an extra $18.4bn is needed globally each year between now and 2015 to meet the water and sanitation goals, which brings the total of funds needed  by 2015 to over $92bn. Announcing the report through a press release Wednesday, WaterAid, an international development agency, lamented that poor targeting of aid for sanitation and water is undermining all development efforts, leaving the poorest of the poor entrenched in poverty. According to the agency, the GLAAS report shows that just 42% of aid given to water and sanitation actually goes where it is needed - to low income countries, adding that only four of th...

EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE In spite of uncertainty surrounding international climate negotiations, countries have forged ahead with low carbon growth strategies in the first quarter of 2010 , a report released by the independent non-profit institute AccountAbility, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Seoul, South Korea on Wednesday has stated . According to the report known as the 2010 Climate Competitiveness Index , the most comprehensive study to date of national progress to create green jobs and economic growth through low carbon products and services, thirty two countries have made significant improvements, with Germany, China and the Republic of Korea being the outstanding examples.  It says India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines and Rwanda have also enhanced their climate accountability. Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Japan and France show the most consistent progress on combining accountability and per...

EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The government of Ghana has stated that it is not reluctant to ratify international human rights instruments that recognise the rights of Persons With Disability (PWDs). It added that although Ghana has not ratified the UN convention on the rights of Persons with Disability, “plans are underway to ensure that the country ratifies and/or adopts this convention and its optional protocol.” Giving this assurance on Monday at a workshop on mainstreaming disability issues in water, sanitation and hygiene services in Accra, the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Hon. Enoch Tei Mensah, said “As one of the only international instruments that emphasises on international development cooperation through the transfer of technical assistance, technological and experience sharing, as well as economic assistance, government will definitely be interested, since it will enhance the speedy implementation of the Disability Act.” The works...

EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Ibrahim Musah, member of a national technical working group preparing a document to be presented at the first ever international High Level Meeting (HLM) on water and sanitation issues to be held in Washington on April 23, 2010, has disclosed that Ghana is not only ready to attend but is also poised to deliver a comprehensive compact to drum home the need for more support for the sector. The compact, he revealed, captures government’s commitment, starts with an institutional analysis of Ghana’s water and sanitation sector and ends with key commitments that the Government of Ghana is making to the ministers of Development Cooperation at the developed countries. Addressing journalists at a side meeting of   a National Council on Persons with Disability Workshop on Mainstreaming Disability Issues in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services in Accra on Monday, he said Ghana will be represented at the HLM by a 7-member delegation ...

EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A workshop to factor in people living with disability in the provision of sanitation, water and hygiene services in Ghana, has been held in Accra. The first of its kind to be held in the country, the workshop, which was held on Monday April 19, 2010, was organised by the National Council of Persons with Disability (NCPD), with the support of WaterAid Ghana and attracted over 50 participants. The participants included representatives from the National Association of the Disabled, Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), National Association of the Blind, WaterAid Ghana (WAG), Ghana Watsan Journalists Network (GWJN) and NCPD. The rest were from Waste Wise Ghana, Ghana Disability Association, Share Care Ghana, Water & Sanitaion Platform, Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, New Energy, and NGO, World Vision – Ghana, Ghana National Association of the Deaf and Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL). Topics discussed included “Mainstreaming Disability Issues ...

EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Newmont Ghana Gold Limited (NGGL), has assured that it will duly compensate individuals with farms and immovable properties, which have or will be impacted by its Akyem Project, in line with the provisions in the Minerals and Mining Law and relevant provisions in the Constitution of Ghana. The assurance followed a number of grievances expressed recently by several community members of the Akyem Project and published in sections of the media.   Reiterating its commitment to act with integrity, trust and respect, and in ways consistent with its social responsibility values and policies through a press release signed by Adiki O. Ayitevie , Regional Manager, Communications and issued in the latter part of March 2010, Newmont said, “In implementing our commitment, the company assures all individuals with farms and immovable properties, which have or will be impacted by our Akyem Project, that they will be duly compensated, con...

EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Gorillas may have largely disappeared from large parts of the Greater Congo Basin by the mid 2020s unless urgent action is taken to safeguard habitats and counter poaching, says the United Nations and INTERPOL—the world’s largest international police organisation. In spite of previous projections by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), made in 2002, which suggested that only 10 per cent of the original ranges would remain by 2030, these estimates now appear too optimistic, given the intensification of pressures including illegal logging, mining, charcoal production and increased demand for bushmeat, of which an increasing proportion is ape meat, according to a report issued by UNEP in Doha on March 24, 2010. According to UNEP, outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus are adding to concerns and has killed thousands of great apes including gorillas and by some estimates up to 90 per cent of animals infected will die. The new report, launched at a meeting of th...