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Ban Plastic Bags - Coalition |
| The Ghana National Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations in the Water and Sanitation Sector (CONIWAS) has called on the government to ban the use of plastic bags. |
This, it said, was because of the irreparable damage plastic bags caused to the environment. This formed part of a 12-point communiqué issued at the end of a four-day seminar on water and sanitation in Koforidua.
The event was organised by CONIWAS, with support from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the European Union, the World Bank and the Royal Netherlands Embassy.
Participants,made up of 104 representatives of NGOs in the water and sanitation sector, brainstormed on issues affecting the sector and came up with measures to address them.
According to the communiqué, the use of plastic bags posed a menace to the society because of the irreparable damage they caused to the environment and that the best thing to do was to ban their use.
The government, the communiqué urged, should rather encourage the use of paper bags, baskets and other alternatives to replace plastic bags which it said could only degenerate in the soil after about 100 years.
It asked the government to declare sanitation a national emergency and come up with an action plan with adequate funding, adding that the sector ministry should also set up a task force to thoroughly discuss the issue to help reduce disparities in data and clarify the actual millennium development targets on sanitation.
It also asked CONIWAS to, as a matter of urgency, organise sanitation fora for presidential aspirants to form part of activities of the International Year of Sanitation and called on all stakeholders to support the School Health Environmental Programme, as well as interventions for out-of-school to enhance sanitation awareness among young people.
The communiqué said since about 80 per cent of all cases in the outpatients departments in hospitals were sanitation-related, mutual health insurance schemes should be encouraged to liaise with district environmental health officers to incorporate sanitation awareness in their educational programmes.
The communiqué further called for increased efforts at mainstreaming equity, inclusion in sanitation delivery at all levels and at all times, as well as the involvement of traditional authorities and religious leaders.
The communiqué asked that bye-laws and regulations on sanitation must be enforced at all levels. |
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