PNC will harness waste into economic value — General Secretary

The People's National Convention (PNC) has said it will develop a comprehensive waste management programme that will focus on harnessing and recycling material waste into energy and generate economic value from waste to promote economic development if it wins power.

It said the party would introduce a National Material Resource and Recycling Programme to address the management of waste.

Sharing the party’s perspective on keeping Ghana clean, the General Secretary of the party, Ms Janet A. Nabla, told the Daily Graphic that the party would also place a ban on the use of all plastics, polythene and non-biodegradable materials in the country.

She was sharing the party’s programme of action on how to address the country’s sanitation challenges in line with the Graphic Communications Group Limited National Sanitation Campaign.

Ms Nabla commended the GCGL “for such a brilliant initiative to launch a national sanitation campaign. The PNC welcomes this in high esteem as it will help to amplify and achieve the sustainable development goals 3 and 6.

International protocol

She said the party would also implement all international protocols on industrial waste, climate change and pollution such as the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Six which Ghana had signed on to.

The SDG Six is about ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Education

“The party aims to intensify and sustain a well-developed public awareness programme to inform and educate the general public on the dangers of improper waste disposal and provide waste bins on every street, bus station and all other public places in the country to discourage people from throwing away solid waste,” she added. 

Ms Nabla said the PNC would also develop a special package for households without toilet facilities, where such households would be provided with modern toilet technologies such as “bio-digesters and biogas plants which will be constructed at a very subsidised cost with a flexible payment arrangement. 

She said it was also important that the local government authorities were resourced to enforce waste management by-laws in local communities.

Water resources and marine environments

She said the party would intensify public education and awareness of the forms and dangers of water pollution to reduce the human activities that endangered water bodies and threatened aquatic life.

"Though there is an abundance of water resources in Ghana, anthropogenic activities and global climate change are threatening the continuous existence and abundance of these resources. The disposal of waste, agrochemicals and industrial effluents into the water bodies most particularly threaten their natural state and their ability to support aquatic life,” she noted. 

Ms Nabla said the PNC will, therefore, intensify public education and awareness of the forms and dangers of water pollution to reduce the human activities that endanger the water bodies.

“Aside from the awareness creation, the PNC will, within three months of assuming office, register and train all small-scale miners in the country on safe mining practices to protect their lives and the water bodies they mine close to.

"We will provide adequate resources and support for the Water Resource Commission to monitor, protect and preserve our rivers and water bodies and regularly furnish the sector ministry with data on river depth, water quality and possible remedial actions. The government shall speedily act on any dangers emanating from such reports," she said.