BlueCrest students call for stronger laws to save Ghana’s coasts
While others started a late Saturday morning, students of BlueCrest College woke up early and came together to clean up coasts of Accra from plastic, debris and tons of irresponsible waste.
Organised by BlueCrest’s Department of Mass Communication, the ‘Ocean Clean Up Exercise’ was held at the Christianborg beach area behind Osu castle early on June 8, 2019. This initiative was part of the Environment Day activities at the college.
Department HoD Sreemoyee Thapa Dasgupta said such activities were essential to sensitise students towards coastal pollution and how it threatens human life.
“We, as citizens of Ghana, need to take responsibility for our environment. We can’t blame the government for everything. We need to take initiatives to combat all that is going wrong in our society.”
Students segregated recyclable waste from debris and handed them over to responsible authorities.
Deborah Andorful, one of the students who volunteered for this initiative, said there was an urgent need for people to cut down the use of plastic.
“People use too many plastic products. I really wish we would reduce using it. It has ruined our beaches.”
BlueCrest Student Representative Council member Enoch Doe Semana urged the government to put stronger and stricter laws in place that would discourage people from polluting their environment.
A study in 2015 said that Ghana generated 302,192 kg/day of plastic waste, and 81% of it was inadequately managed (plastic waste dumped in uncontrolled landfills). This waste did not include ‘littered’ plastic waste.
