Zoomlion, Church of Pentecost Launch U.S.$10Million Environmental Campaign

By Kingsley Asare

President Akufo-Addo being briefed by the contractor at the University of Environment and Sustainable Development project site

Zoomlion Ghana Limited as part of efforts to rid the country of filth is to distribute 50,000 waste bins free of charge across the country.

Chief Executive Officer of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong who disclosed this at the launch of an environmental campaign to rid the country of filth and educate the citizens on environmental cleanliness, said his outfit has secured $10 million from Ecobank Ghana Limited for the production of the bins.

The programme dubbed "Environmental Care Campaign (ECC)," an initiative of the Church of Pentecost formed part of the five-year strategic plan of the church, to partner government to accelerate the development of the country.

Under the theme "My Environment, My Responsibility," the programme to be executed across the country in partnership with Zoomlion Ghana Limited, would start with a massive clean-up exercise at Kasoa this weekend.

Speaking at the launch of the programme in Accra yesterday, Dr Agyepong said the distribution bins was critical in winning the fight against filth in the country, saying if the people have bins, they will not litter or throw rubbish on the street or the ground, which end up in the drains."

Dr Agyepong said Zoomlion Ghana Limited was proud to partner the Church of Pentecost to implement the ECC, saying "Zoomlion has all the equipment and personnel to rid the country of filth."

The CEO of Zoomlion said waste was wealth and efforts must be made to recycle the huge tonnes of waste generated in the country daily for useful purposes, stressing that like Mauritius, Singapore, and Dubai were raking in more revenue through waste.

"Unlike gold and oil and gas which need huge capital outlay to exploit, waste is abundant in the country and does not require huge capital to buy the resources," he said.

The Chairman of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Nyamekye said the ECC was one of the many Church-State partnership captured in the church's vision for the next five years dubbed Vision 2023 and under the theme "Possessing the Nations: Equipping the Church to transform every sphere of society with values and principles of the Kingdom of God."

He said the church was not concerned about the spiritual needs of its members, but the physical needs as well, saying "the Church of Pentecost is a wealthy church and cannot operate effectively in a society engulfed with filth."

He said the programme would focus on four key pillars namely education, clean-up exercises, community-based initiatives and other activities.

To this end, Apostle Nyamekye said the church had produced 300,000 brochures on ECC in eight local languages to be used in public education on the programme.

The Minister of Sanitation, Madam Cecilia Dapaah who represented the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, lauded the Church of Pentecost and Zoomlion Ghana for the programme, saying "this is a clear indication of what non-state actors can do to support the government to accelerate the development of the country."

He said promoting sound environmental cleanliness was a shared responsibility and it behooved on the church, civil society and corporate bodies to support the government deal with waste and promote good environmental practices.

Mrs Dapaah pledged government's commitment to support the programme to ensure that it became successful.

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