Zoompak concept, a plus for Jospong companies

It may appear unrelated, but the perennial flooding of Accra cannot be divorced from our management of the environment.

For more than a decade or so now floods have resulted from choked drains, the dumping of refuse in open spaces and the construction of structures on watercourses.

In the days of yore, the city authorities made it difficult for residents to litter their surroundings and keep the frontage of their homes unkempt for sanitary officials to come and clear.

Obviously, the population of Accra has grown beyond what it used to be in the immediate post-independent period when the jurisdiction of the city authority was limited to a few suburbs.

Today, Accra has grown to include what some call the Greater Accra metropolis, with people struggling for services such as electricity, water and sanitation from the same sources.

It is recalled that not too long ago refuse management in Accra and nearby municipalities became a problem because the landfill sites at Weija and Abokobi were decommissioned.

The piles of refuse in certain communities in Accra and other urban centres are an indication of the inefficiency in waste collection in the country.

It is against this backdrop that the waste collection giant, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies, must be commended for the inauguration of a modern waste transfer station and medical waste treatment at Teshie in Accra to make solid waste collection more efficient.

Known as the Zoompak Teshie Transfer Station, as it is under the management of Zoompak Ghana Limited, the facility, which can manage up to 1,300 tonnes of waste on a daily basis, will also serve the landfill site in Tema.

Inaugurating the station yesterday, the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, said he was happy with the facility and what it could do, and that images of the June 3 flood and fire disasters and their aftermath exposed the refusal of the people to take care of the environment.

“Our environment will not take care of us if we fail to take care of it,” he said.

Many of our people have adopted the attitude that so long as we have people who are paid from the public purse to keep our environment clean, they can indiscriminately litter around, expecting Zoomlion workers to clear the mess.

Let us return to the values of old when everybody played his or her part in the conduct of public affairs.

Majority of the people respected the bye-laws of the local authorities, while schools instilled personal hygiene and respect for nature in the youth.

This was done with the Biblical injunction: “Train up a child the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

In other words, if we inculcate respect for the environment in all our citizens, particulary those in their formative years, they will always uphold the virtue of cleanliness being next to Godliness.