Photo to illustrate the story
The Apegusu Senior High School (APESEC) in the Eastern Region has received a big boost to address its internal sanitation challenges.
The lack of sanitation facilities meant the school management and the 1,372 student population have been grappling with waste management with its resultant sanitation challenges on the campus.
This plight was subsequently brought to the attention of the *Mankrado* of the Akwamu Adonten Traditional Area, Apegusu in the Eastern Region, Nana *Dedey* Akwei II, who initiated steps to address the problem by approaching his employers, the management of the Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL), Tema Zone for support.
The petroleum giants heeded the plea for waste management facilities on the campus by providing ten pieces of waste bins to support the school’s drive towards addressing the sanitation challenges in the school.
Assistant headmaster of the school, Mr. Raphael Talko Nang received the items on behalf of the school.
The Mankrado who is an old student of the Apegusu Senior High School said it was the wish of the traditional leaders and donors to ensure that the gesture helps address a pressing need as sanitation in the school.
“This morning, we’re here to donate ten pieces of the dustbins to the school and it’s our wish that these dustbins will be able to solve the sanitation issues confronting the school,” Nana Dedey said during the presentation.
He also encouraged the students not to be discouraged by the prevailing challenges in the school but to take their studies seriously to develop themselves to enable them to achieve greatness in the future.
Nana Dedey Akwei II in an interview said though he’s aware of many challenges bedeviling the school, its authorities saw the need to manage waste in the school as an urgent need, a request his employers readily agreed to when he drew their attention to it.
“Sanitation is important for good health so getting waste bins would be of great help and this prompted me to send a distress message to my employers, GOIL, Tema Zonal Manager who agreed to assist us with ten dustbins,” he expressed.
Explaining how the items are going to address the sanitation problems in the school, he said, “It will help in many ways, the absence of waste bins to keep rubbish is always a big problem so I believe with this, they can package their waste very well to ensure proper hygiene to avert the spread of diseases.”
The Mankrado called on the school authorities and the students to practice proper sanitation on campus to ensure the sound mind and health of the students.
Mr. Raphael Talko Nang expressed the school’s heartfelt gratitude to the chief and management of GOIL Tema Zone and appealed for more support from the benefactors in other areas of the school.
He described the items as useful, assuring that the students would ensure the proper maintenance of the bins.
Mr. Talko Nang in an interview noted that waste management on the school compound without bins had been difficult. “It has been a headache for us conveying our waste around the school compound to a convenient place,” said the assistant head who added that students were prompted against improper hygiene habits to ease the challenge.
Narrating how the school coped with the situation, he said gathering waste and transferring it to a disposal site was difficult without waste bins, forcing students to improvise to undertake the task.
The waste bins, he added would be placed at vantage points for easy access by the students but he however appealed for more of the bins on the compound.
An opinion leader in the Apegusu community who witnessed the ceremony, Mr. Agyenim Boating also thanked the Mankrado for the gesture, adding that the dustbins would encourage proper sanitation in the school.
He however appealed to the Asuogyaman District Assembly to provide waste containers for the school and community to ensure the proper disposal of waste.