By Mildred Siabi-Mensah
Shama (W/R), March 24, GNA – Pupils of the Abuesi Methodist Basic School have resolved not to dump refuse and other feacal waste on the beaches in the community to protect them from pollution.
They also intend to educate their peers and parents on the hazards such waste posed to their health and the environment and the survival of other lives below water.
In achieving Goal 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the children also agreed to commit to sending their refuse to designated areas in the community .
Led by their Assistant School Prefect, Agnes Nkansah, the pupils gave the assurance when they participated in a clean-up exercise by the Friends of the Nation, an environmentally minded organisation, at Apo in the Shama District of the Western Region.
The exercise, held at the beach front to mark the World Water Day, follows a durbar and series of community engagement and on-air discussions to change behaviours among the children.
It was aimed at protecting water bodies including River Pra that passed through the trenches of the district.
Mr Ebenezer Amukwandoh, the Assembly member of Apo, expressed sadness at the Shama District Assembly’s inability to fix the sanitation challenges.
He noted how the communities lacked places of convenience and thus resorting to the beach as alternative.
He said government projects had halted for many years, aggravating the indiscriminate dumping of human waste into the sea.
Mr Emmanuel Kudor, the Assembly’s Environmental Health Officer, said the Assembly had plans to solve most of the sanitation challenges in the area.
Mr William Dankyi, a project Officer, Friends of the Nation, encouraged the children to be ambassadors of safe water around their communities.
He said water was critical to the health of the living, hence the need for the people to preserve it.
Mr Dankyi spoke to the children about how water quality was reducing due to the continuous pollution of water bodies with plastics.
“We need to avoid throwing all these waste into the sea so that we will have quality fish and water for use,” he added.
GNA