In Ghana, the regional authorities of Ashanti are launching a sanitation project in partnership with Zoomlion. The project aims to improve waste management and restore the forest cover in the city of Kumasi.
The Ashanti Clean-up, Greening and Beautification Project was launched on August 24th, 2021 by the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council in central Ghana. Through this project, the region hopes to meet two United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are goal 12 on waste management and goal 15 which calls for the preservation and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems.
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Zoomlion will support the Ashanti regional authorities in the implementation of the project in the city of Kumasi, which was once “the envy of the entire West African sub-region because of its beautiful green spaces”. In Kumasi, the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC) subsidiary will deploy its agents on the streets, with garbage trucks for solid waste collection. “Unlike many other local authorities, Kumasi has a landfill site for waste. However, as this waste is not sorted, the site is used for all kinds of waste rather than just residual waste. The capacity of the landfill has therefore been exhausted far too early,” says a report by the Ghana-NWR partnership (Germany’s federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia ‘NRW’ and the West African Republic of Ghana).
Zoomlion, which provides waste management in Ghana’s cities, will also help educate the public on good solid waste disposal practices to preserve the environment. “Sanitation regulations will also be intensified and we will penalise offenders,” says the Ashanti regional authorities.
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The Ashanti Clean-up, Greening and Sustainable Beautification Project also includes tree planting. The Ashanti region is losing its vegetation cover due to deforestation and bush fires. This situation is observed elsewhere in the country. According to a report by the environmental organisation Rainforest Trust, in 2018 alone, this West African country experienced an alarming 60% decrease in its primary forest.
Inès Magoum
