BAN PLASTIC BAGS ... Coalition (PAGE 33)

THE Ghana National Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations in the Water and Sanitation Sector (CONIWAS) has called on the government to ban the use of plastic bags.
This, it said, was because of the irreparable damage plastic bags caused to the environment.
This was contained in a 12-point communiqué issued at the end of a four-day seminar on water and sanitation in Koforidua.
The event, which was organised by CONIWAS, with support from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the European Union, the World Bank and the Royal Netherlands Embassy, and attended by 104 representatives of NGOs in the water and sanitation sector, was to brainstorm on issues affecting the sector and how best to address them.
According to the communiqué, the use of plastic bags posed a menace to the society because of the irreparable damage they caused to the environment and that the best thing to do was to ban them from the system.
The government, the communiqué stated, should rather encourage the use of paper bags, baskets and other alternatives to replace plastic bags which it said could only dissolve in the soil after about 100 years.
According to the communiqué, the government should declare sanitation a national emergency and come up with an action plan with adequate funding, adding that the sector ministry should also set up a task force to thoroughly discuss the issue to help reduce disparities in data and clarify the actual millennium development targets on sanitation.
It also asked CONIWAS to, as a matter of urgency, organise sanitation forums for presidential aspirants to form part of activities of the International Year of Sanitation and called on all stakeholders to support the School Health Environmental Programme, as well as interventions for out-of-schoolchildren to enhance sanitation awareness among young people.
The communiqué further stated that since about 80 per cent of all cases in the outpatients departments in hospitals were noted to be sanitation-related, mutual health insurance schemes should be encouraged to liaise with district environmental health officers to incorporate sanitation awareness in their educational programmes.
On the provision of places of convenience, it called on the government, development partners and other key players in the sanitation sector to facilitate and provide concessionary loans and micro-credit schemes, in addition to subsidies, to enable more households to own toilets.
The communiqué further called for increased efforts at mainstreaming equity, inclusion and gender issues in sanitation delivery at all levels and at all times, as well as the involvement of traditional authorities and religious leaders.
Bye-laws and regulations on sanitation, the communiqué said, must be enforced.