On the 28th of December, 2021 members of Nurture Nature Foundation, Sanitisation Volunteers Corps of Jamestown and some residents came together to perform a selfless act of clean up and desilting of drainages at the Jamestown High Street, Accra.
This is in line with Clean Beaches program by NNF and partnered by CSIR and UNESCO to ensure that such vision is achieved by the year 2030. The day witnessed hardworking people who in spite of scanty cleaning materials such as gloves, plastic sacks, wheelbarrows, shovels, trucks and so on managed to do a splendid work in the Jamestown High Street environs, giving hope and a sense of communal responsibility and belongingness to all the concerned participants. The essence of such clean ups can never be downplayed as it curbs the spread of diseases and illnesses especially in these global pandemic times.
The coming together of residents to clean the shores of Jamestown beach, Accra, our of immediate concern and study, has had a massive impact on the very look of the sea sand there, appearing whiter and fresher now then before as reckoned by residents and visitors . The innovation here is that waste materials such as plastic bottles are used for building of eco tents whereas waste slippers are used for board collage arts. This collage arts is a way of getting boys and girls to have interests, through trainings and workshops, in waste harnessing and segregation of waste materials, all these in the quest for cleaner beaches in the future. This is the time for active cleaning of the beach and its surroundings since most of the places are closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. There’s less waste pollution by people who would have visited the places during the festive season.This clean up exercise will be a routine set up so as to instill into the people of Jamestown the need to keep the environment clean at all times. ‘Falefale feemo’ is a theme to raise awareness in the community for the culture cleanliness. Volunteers corps, CSIR and UNESCO have been very instrumental in this clean up, segregation and maintenance exercise of the Jamestown beach environs. NNF is very grateful for them sharing this vision. We could not have asked for more love, we really do appreciate. The challenges are great, however with constant work in progress, we shall prevail. We therefore use this platform to call on all well meaning individuals and corporate entities to help fight this menace. Years and years of accumulated waste need a stringent a more mechanized approach and so we invite stakeholders across the globe to help. For instance, giant waste nets are needed to be fixed at major drainage outlets that lead to the Accra sea. By this, majority of the waste that come through during the rains will be arrested before getting to the shoreline and its environs like the case of Jamestown. Such major installations cannot be done without government’s intervention and collaborations with stakeholders globally.
The NNF Director of Operations, Mr. Peter Asiedu, appeals for Trucks for evacuating waste, Recycling Machines to process the waste to profitable materials and very importantly, a task force system to maintain order. All these need proper capital injections. This whole exercise cannot be achieved without a wholistic approach which will require all and sundry to come together to support in any form. The future belongs to us, let us clean the beaches as well as the ocean and save mother earth.Written by:Samuel Cobbinah Abraham(Research and Business Development Director, NNF)
