By Isaac Newton Tetteh
Ashaiman, July 11, GNA — Caritas Ghana, a charitable organisation operating under the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, has launched an electronic waste collection centre at the St Augustine Catholic Church in Ashaiman to deal with environmentally unacceptable indiscriminate disposal of waste.
Mr. Richard Nyaaba Akurugu, Executive Director of Caritas Ghana, stated that the electronic waste collection centre in Ashaiman forms part of the organisation’s flagship programme dubbed Social Impact Investment (SII), which was aimed at caring for the environment.
Mr. Akurugu mentioned that Caritas Ghana has already established plastic plant centres in Wa, Goaso, Cape Coast, Tamale and Accra, stressing that there were various environmental pollutants, including electronic waste, hence the need to establish the E-waste collection centre in Ashaiman to deal with it.
He said his outfit was focused on removing hazardous electronic waste within the environments, hinting that the move would be sustained with the government introduction of the electronic waste funds and support from other key stakeholders within the waste management sector.
Mr. Akurugu further stated that they would also engage faith-based organisations (FBOs) and other relevant identifiable groups within the various communities to ensure electronic waste is well managed to help solve the issues of climate change.
He added that environmental justice should be the responsibility of all citizens, saying that activities at the collection centres would be adequately centralised and well monitored to ensure that the welfare of the workers’ was well taken care of.
Mr. Emmanuel Kwesi Agboson, assembly member for the Tettey Nkpa Electoral Area, expressed gratitude to Caritas Ghana for the initiative, stating that Ashaiman municipality would ensure the sustainability of the project to ensure waste management, which hitherto had remained one of the major challenges within the municipality.
Mr. Innocent Turkson, Chairman of the Local Chapter of the Scrap Dealers Association in Ashaiman, welcomed the move and assured their support to ensure the centre lived up to expectations.
Mr. Turkson hinted that scrap dealers in Ashaiman, Tema and other adjoining communities would be educated to comply strictly with the laid-down principles as far as their work ethics were concerned.
GNA
Edited by Laudia Sawer/Benjamin Mensah