By Lawrencia Akoto Frempong
Kpone, June 20, GNA – The Assemblyman for Dengla Electoral Area in Kpone, Mr Wat William Attiapa, has called for an end to Open Defecation (OD) in the area and along Laloi Beach in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality.
Mr Attiapa, during a clean-up exercise organized by the Tema Fuel Company (TFC) to “beat plastic pollution,” told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that some residents in the area still ease themselves in the open and even along the beach area.
The TFC organised the clean-up exercise at Kpone Laloi Beach in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality as part of efforts to beat plastic pollution, which forms part of the company’s commemoration of 2023 World Oceans Day, that sought to remind people of the major role the oceans had in everyday life.
The ocean is ascribed to being the lungs of our planet, a major source of food and medicine, and a critical part of the biosphere.
The purpose of the day was to inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean, develop a worldwide movement of citizens for the ocean, and mobilise and unite the world’s population on a project for the sustainable management of the world’s oceans.
Mr Attiapa revealed that some of the residents claimed they had no option but to engage in open defecation because the area lacked toilet facilities.
“This is an old town, and the place is congested, therefore, one cannot say he will dig up a manhole to use a toilet facility because the settlement wouldn’t allow it,” he added.
He explained that there have been two uncompleted toilet projects abandoned in the electoral area for about eight years without any support for completion.
He noted that, as the assemblyman for the area, he had tabled it before the assembly and was waiting to help complete the facility
He appealed to the Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Assembly to help complete the project to end open defecation in the Dengla area and along Laloi Beach.
Mr Attiapa also called on TFC, stakeholders, and other organizations like the Zoomlion Company to help them secure waste collectors and toilet facilities to curb and beat plastic pollution and also end open defecating in the area.
Ms Petrina Nyann, TFC Human Resource Manager, said the theme for World Environment Day, which focused on solutions to plastic pollution under the campaign #BeatPlasticPollution, served as a reminder that people’s actions on plastic pollution matter.
Mr Samuel Kwabla Alorvor, TFC Health, Safety, Security, and Environmental Sustainability Officer, explained that the environment needed to be protected from plastic pollution and all other pollution.
He noted that TFC decided to merge the commemoration of World Environment Day 2023 with World Oceans Day through the clean-up exercise at Kpone Laloi Beach to send a strong signal to the world about the need to protect the ocean and the environment.
GNA