The Executive Chairman of Zoomlion Limited, Ghana’s leading Waste and Sanitation service provider, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong has lauded the pledge by His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to make “Accra the cleanest City in Africa in the next four years”.
He said, this feeds into the company’s vision of championing Clean, Green and healthy communities.
President Akufo-Addo made the pledge on Sunday at Jamestown in Accra, at a ceremony to enstool him as a Chief of Jamestown under the stool name Nii Kwaku Ablade Okogyeaman I.
In a statement, he gave the assurance that, “the commitment I want to make, and for all of us to make, is that by the end of my term in office, Accra will be the cleanest city on the entire African continent. That is the commitment I am making.”
This vision Dr. Agyepong says, is attainable and requires a conceited effort from all Ghanaians including the Government and the citizenry as a whole, noting that environmental sanitation issues is a shared responsibility that requires everybody’s input.
Dr. Agyepong who is also the President of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA) asserted that Environmental Sanitation coupled with effective waste management has a great potential of making Ghana a destination of choice for investors and tourists.
“The major challenge which slows down work in this industry is the attitude of people and the enforcement and promulgation of stringent by-laws which will regulate waste management in all sectors of the economy”, he opined.
He said, the waste and sanitation industry is dominated by indigenous business men and women whose contribution to national development goes beyond waste collection. He explained that in addition to ensuring a clean and green environment, the sector also “help to improve the health the general wellbeing of the people, creates thousands of jobs for both the young and the old in various sanitation modules while profits from our business operations are also reinvested in the Ghanaian economy”, he added.
Dr. Joseph Agyepong said the Waste, Environment and Sanitation industry has the potential of making the Government’s one district one factory vision a reality. “The industry, provides waste collection and haulage, recycling- both organic and inorganic, solid waste, medical waste and faecal waste treatment and landfills management among others with modules that can be replicated in the various districts.”
He indicated that Zoomlion alone over the past ten years has made a lot of interventions in the waste and sanitation sector providing integrated waste management solutions including the introduction of simple but modern technologies, recycling and manufacturing facilities, transfer stations, and medical and faecal waste treatment plants among others. The company in collaboration with other sister companies are dredging the Odaw river to curb the perennial flooding of the city during the raining season.
Dr. Agyepong pledged the support of the various environmental service providers to the government in ensuring that Accra becomes the cleanest city in Africa. He also called on the citizenry to change their attitudes and stop indiscriminate littering to support the Presidents vision. He also called on the city authorities to enforce existing bye-laws on waste management and environmental sanitation to promote discipline.
About Zoomlion Ghana Limited
ZOOMLION GHANA LIMITED is a wholly Ghanaian owned company that focuses on delivering quality Waste Management and Scientific Cleaning services. It is the provider of an integrated Waste Management Solution from Waste collection, through haulage, transfer and sorting to recycling. It is a member of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA) of Ghana and a Silver member of the International Waste Management Association.
Zoomlion Ghana Limited, was established in 2006 as a waste management business in Ghana, under the Company’s Act 1963, Act179. Its core mandate is to help deal with the country’s waste menace and to address the teething unemployment challenges.
The Company no provides an integrated Waste Management Solution across the ten regions and 216 district assemblies.
Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong is the Chief Executive Officer of the Zoomlion Ghana Limited