Caritas Ghana with support from GIZ has Commissioned a plastic processing plant in Tamale under the Caritas Ghana campaign title ‘Care for Our Common Home’ in the Northern region.
The purpose of setting up the plastic processing plant in the North is to help address the issue of plastic waste management and provide decent job opportunities for the youth in the region.
The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference and the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Tamale, Most Rev. Philip Naameh , speaking at the commissioning ceremony said the Archdiocese was very excited about the project and that they will work towards ensuring that the plant was constantly fed with plastic waste which was gradually taking over the farm lands, water bodies and often causing flooding.
According to him, while the plants will focus on addressing environmental problems of pollution from burning the hazardous materials, the Tamale Archdiocese and Caritas Ghana will also seek to create green jobs for the youth in the region.
“The Catholic Church in Northern Ghana is deeply committed to stemming the annual exodus of especially young girls to the cities in Southern Ghana for menial and jobs under very dehumanizing conditions.”
Most Rev. Philip Naameh called on government and its agencies to lend their support to the Archdiocese to help solve the twin problems of Sanitation and Youth Unemployment in Ghana.
“The prospects for plastic preprocessing in Northern is very bright, I will therefore urge GIZ and other donor partners to continue to support in the nurturing of this planet saving machines with the aim of ridding our environment from all forms of plastic pollution and by also converting our thrash into cash.”
The Executive Secretary of Caritas Ghana, Samuel Zan Akologo, said the Tamale plastic processing plant has employed over 20 youth including some head potters who would have been going through severe maltreatment in the south for survival.
He revealed that within two months workers of the Tamale plastic processing plant have taken out 7,500kg of plastics from the streets of Tamale.
Mr. Akologo noted that the processed plastics will be reproduced into buckets , chairs among others.
Mr. Markus Spitzbart, Head of Programme at GIZ, said most of the scraps workers in the southern part of Ghana comes from the north and for that matter the establishment of the plastic processing plant should send a signal to the youth in the south to come back home and work in a more decent and comfortable environment to earn money to carter for their families.
Mr. Martin Ahorlu, the Tamale Metro Waste Management Director , was excited that a company has been established in the region to assist the Tamale metro assembly to deal with the waste situation in the region.
Mr. Ahorlu disclosed that the region produces about 500tonnes of waste a day adding that the assembly is challenged items of resources to handle the sanitation situation.
He assured management of the Tamale plastic processing plant that the Tamale Metro Assembly will support them to ensure that Tamale was clean at the same time the cleanness city in Ghana.
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale