Ghana must find ways to eliminate plastics – UN

The United Nations (UN)Resident Coordinator in Ghana, Mr. Charles Abani, has appealed to the government to find a suitable way to eliminate plastics from the production chain.

He stated that about 253 million plastic bottles were consumed every day and recklessly disposed off at vulnerable places, causing damage to the ecosystem.

He made the appeal during the UN Beach clean-up exercise at the Ussher Fort Beach on Tuesday in Accra.

The UN Beach clean-up exercise was done in partnership with the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB), Zoomlion Ghana Limited, the High Commission of Kenya and the Honorary Consul of Portugal, and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Ambassador.

Mr Abani said there was a need to create awareness and provide opportunities to promote and conserve the heritage of the country, and for that reason, the clean-up exercise was included ahead of the UN’s Ocean Conference.

“As far as people leave their lives along the coast, they would be negatively impacted if, we do not find a way to solve plastic waste in the country,” he said.

He explained that 70 percent of lands across the world was covered with water, meaning if water was not clean, the earth could not be clean, especially when the ocean was also our source of livelihood.

“We want to sensitize the community on the need to keep beaches and environment clean, because the ocean we see, is called a carbon city unless it absorbs carbon dioxide before we get oxygen so we must value our ocean,” he explained.

Mr Abani, therefore urged everyone to get involved in the elimination of plastic waste since a country alone was unable to handle it.

He called on partners, countries and all individuals to come together and fight against climate change.

On his part, the Head of the Monuments Division of GMMB, Mr Bernard Agyiri Sackey, said every individual benefitted from the ocean meanwhile it was polluted by debris which needed to be stopped.

“We should all work together to eliminate plastic wastes in the country and globally, therefore the government has to also consider the urgency and importance of having a clean environment.

The United Nations Ocean Conference 2022, co-hosted by the governments of Kenya and Portugal, is scheduled to take place in Lisbon, Portugal from June 27 to July 1, 2022.

The conference aimed at bringing together governments, experts and civil society groups to accelerate UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.”