WASTE management continues to bedevil the country, especially in the capital city and other urban settlements. And this problem will continue to plague our economy if concrete measures are not taken to nip it in the bud.
Day in day out Accra is particularly engulfed in tonnes of garbage and filth, while the city authorities seem to be helpless and overwhelmed, despite the millions of cedis spent every month to address the situation.
The problem seems to be compounded by the attitude of the people by way of the haphazard and indiscriminate waste disposal culture which cannot be tackled by anybody except ourselves with a positive attitude to life.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that this bad attitude can be discarded with a strong will, otherwise we shall all be at risk should a major catastrophe strike.
It is pathetic to learn that a new waste management system introduced by the AMA to ameliorate the situation is getting overboard because of our entrenched negative attitude to handling waste.
Under the new system, residents are required to register with the waste management company that has been assigned to their communities to whom they will pay a fee approved by the AMA.
However, some residents that the DAILY GRAPHIC spoke to randomly said no company had so far visited their communities to register them, although they believed the new system was good if the contractors would stick to their schedule of lifting their litter bins.
Whatever it is, the DAILY GRAPHIC would like to stress that times have changed and so people should be able to bear with the authorities and pay for the waste generated.
Some solid waste experts have indicated that the nation’s environmental sanitation challenges can best be managed with the introduction of a sanitation fund.
It is against this background that the DAILY GRAPHIC is once again drumming home the need to introduce a polluter pay policy which will make it mandatory for the producers of garbage to pay appropriate levies.
All stakeholders must be brought on board to fashion the policy, especially producers of plastic materials whose activities are an eyesore in every nook and cranny of the country.
But we think it is high time we moved away from the use of plastic materials to more environmentally friendly and highly decomposable materials to save our environment and prevent the looming catastrophe or time bomb.
Barely two months into the introduction of the new system under which the AMA has contracted waste management companies to work in specific areas, some of the contractors are complaining that the shift is too harsh, unsustainable and not conducive for business.
The cry by the waste management companies, therefore, drives home the point that something needs to be done about the scheme. Happily, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, has conceded that there are some challenges with solid waste management and that the AMA is doing its best to improve on the situation.
The time to act is now and all hands must be on deck to save our country and our own lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment