Erna Solberg touring the area with Minister and the
Chief Fisherman
THE NORWEGIAN Prime Minister, Erna Solberg has called for united effort to vibrantly end marine plastics pollution menace.
According to her, the pressing problem of marine plastic problem has to be solved to promote healthier fishes in Ghana and other parts of the world.
“In reality, Ghana is doing a lot in the fishing part like surveillance to ensure you have licensing and fighting illegal fishing but I still also think there is plastic problem in Ghana as you can see it at the beaches,” the Prime Minister said when she visited the Tema Canoe Landing Beach.
Marine plastic pollution is a fast growing problem albeit some global agreements dealing with the littering. Despite many good initiatives and action plans, the world appears to be losing the overall battle in the pollution of water bodies.
The Prime Minister believed that it is significant to ensure that Ghana’s beaches are plastics free for people to feel that the country’s fishes are healthier to consume.
“Ghana has a job to do to ensure that the oceans are not polluted and that is a global problem and they have to do something everywhere and Ghana has to do something in Ghana and we also have to do something in Norway,” she said.
Solberg’s visit to the site was to acquaint herself with the activities of the fisher folks at the landing beach and to also interact with them as part of her two-day official visit to Ghana.
She applauded the initiative the fishermen and canoe builders had adopted in constructing a canoe for fishing.
For her part, the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Hon. Elizabeth Afoley Quaye who expressed excitement about the fishermen complying with the closed season fishing was worried about the pollution of the sea which appears unpleasant.
“Apart from the area being a bad site it also affects the health of fishes since fishes swallow plastic and die as well as chemicals from plastic also enter the fishes which put the health of human at risk when the fishes are consumed,” she stated.
In a quest to ensure healthy fishes and life, she called on the fisher folks to ensure clean fishing environment.
The Minister further stated that a high level inter-ministerial committee headed by the Minister of Planning has been constituted to deal with the plastic waste menace through awareness for proper management of plastic waste.
Nii Odametey, the Chief Fisherman of theTema Canoe Beach, who took the Prime Minister on the tour, asked for special dumping site for the fisher folks to dump their rubbish far from the beach as one of the steps to solve the marine plastic pollution.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema