EPA Trains Communities On Waste Management

By: Francis Npong A two-day capacity building workshop on water and sanitation management organised for members of the district assemblies in the northern region has ended in Tamale with a call on the people to be mindful of activities that posed serious threat to environment.
Speaking in an interview with the Enquirer after the workshop the Northern Regional Director of EPA Mr. Abu Iddrisu pointed out that environmental degradation and waste management were alarming and need attention from both the government non governmental organisations, institutions and individuals to help deal with it.
Mr. Abu said waste management was becoming a canker in Ghana and that if attention is not paid to it proper management it would plague the nation into serious health crisis.
He stressed that the environmental related diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, malaria among other diseases would spring up which would affect national development hence the need to trained people to be able to management water, sanitation and environment.
The workshop he explained is part of efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to equip personnel from the district assemblies with requisite environmental and sanitation management knowledge to help tackle the menace of waste, and environmental degradation among other things. The workshop which was organised under the Northern Region Small Towns Water and Sanitation (NORST) project brought personnel from Yendi, Nanumba North, and Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo among other districts who discussed various environmental related hazards that pose a challenge to water and sanitation at the district levels.
These issues include bush burning, deforestation, surface mining, over grazing, poor sanitation and waste handling, poor agronomic practices and abuse or misuses of agro chemicals among other things. The NORST project is a seven-year development project and is funded by the Canadian Government through Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) at the cost of about $29.6 million. The project is aimed to increased access to sustainable clean drinking water and sanitation services to approximately 125, 000 beneficiaries in 30 selected small towns in 13 districts in the northern region.
Mr. Iddrisu explained that the participants were also trained to draft environmental management plans to help address issues of wastewater and solid waste management, land conservation and the protection of forestry. The participants were also sensitised the need to discourage practices that are environmental unfriendly such as cutting down trees for charcoal burning and misused of water bodies among other things. He said when waste materials were not properly managed could lead to air, environmental and water pollutions that would affect people’s health. The Deputy Northern Regional Minister Mr. San Nasamu Asabigi indicated that water was life and need to be properly managed.
He therefore urged EPA to collaborate with other stakeholders to ensure that water; waste management and sanitation issues were properly understood by community members