The Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) in the Cape Coast Metropolis has held a cleanup and waste audit exercise at a dump site on the Ayensu Community road, here at the University of Cape Coast.
Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO), is a youth-led advocacy group that focuses largely on environmental sustainability and provide solutions to pressing environmental issues through youth empowerment, skills development and public education.
According to the Project Coordinator for the organization in the Cape Coast Metropolis, Ms. Success Adjeley Sowah, the rationale behind the exercise was to contribute to environmental sustainability and community development through segregation of waste in order to explore the options available for recycling.
She noted that continuous education is critical to the achievement of a hygienic environment and therefore called on communities and all relevant bodies to support the cause to reduce environmental pollution in the metropolis and the country at large.
“We are not just here to know what kind of waste we have, we are also doing a clean-up as a matter of fact just to have the dumping site looking clean. I think if we preach the message that our dump sites are supposed to look clean, we can pass that message down and with time we will start achieving some of the goals with respect to cleaner environment”
She further added “GAYO is calling on the communities around to support our efforts to assist with waste management in the Cape Coast Metropolis, we cannot do this on our own, we require the efforts of each and every individual, civil society organizations, NGOs and other institutions to come on board, so that we can together solve this problem of pollution within the Metropolis”.
In an Interview with ATLFMNEWS, the President for the Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) Eco Club at the University of Cape Coast, Nana Minta Asiedu Ampadu-Minta said the exercise will help curb the menace of plastic waste pollution in the school.
“At the end of the day, we will know which waste is being generated more, whether plastics, wood, organics, and others. So we are doing this to stop the menace of plastic pollution on campus because the Ayensu refuse dump is in the University community and people pass there a lot, so it is not pleasant for the site to be left unkempt. We are also in collaboration with other departmental associations with an aim to preserve, conserve and restore the ecosystem in which we live. Other countries like Kenya have achieved it and so Ghana can equally do the same. The youths have the voice and so once we start, the University authority will come in to help”.
SOURCE: GLORIA AMPOMAH OPPONG/ATLFMNEWS
