The Honorable Deputy Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr. Michael Yaw Gyato has revealed that government is putting in place plans to implement punitive measures to deal with the plastic waste menace that has engulfed the nation.
According to him, the existing punitive measures in place are not deterrent enough and that government is coming up with innovative measures to increase the tax element on plastics.
The Minister who also doubles as MP for Krachi East noted that this would encourage people to desist from the constant use of plastics which is causing a lot of problem in the country.
He however expressed surprise over the conduct of Ghanaians who dress nicely to their offices but throw plastic waste anywhere on the streets.
In his statement on the floor of the Parliament, he reiterated that “we want to urge Ghanaians and our brothers on the other side of the House [the Minority] to support us any time we come up with such measures, so that Ghana would be clean and we would have a clean environment”.
The Honourable Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak from the minority side also stated that there should be intensive and serious public education on the dangers and harm plastic waste is causing to the Nation.
According to him, public education should be carried out at schools and in various churches. He also advocated for the public education to be carried out at various market places across the country, as everything sold at the market place goes with plastics in one way or the other. He further added that when the education is carried out it would go a long way to save the country of the plastic waste menace.
He further noted that “We need to engage companies that produce plastics to ensure that they produce plastics that can be reused, so that they do not end up in the environment harming our water bodies”.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
