NCCE commences 2019 citizenship week in Ningo-Prampram

The Ningo-Prampram Directorate of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) has commenced the 2019 citizenship week celebration with a call on children and the youth to be agents of environmental change.

The European Union funded week celebration which is on the theme, ‘A clean Ghana, our responsibility’, is a sub celebration of the annual Constitution Week which was introduced by the commission in 2012.

A total of 50 schools are to be visited by the officials of the commission during the weeklong celebration.

Very Reverend Tetteh Terkper, Minister in charge of Bethel Methodist Church, Dawhenya, said instead of joining in littering of the environment and improper disposal of refuse, the youth must endeavour to be agents of good sanitation practices.

He noted that “the youth must educate their peers, relatives, neighbours and the public on the negative effects of improper waste disposal and bad environmental practices on plants, farm lands, water bodies, among others.

“It is sad future generations will have to suffer consequences of bad environmental practices of current generation, research indicates it will take between 50 and 600 years for various types of plastics to decompose,” Very Rev Terkper cautioned.

He bemoaned the way commuters threw refuse away from moving vehicles, not caring where they would end up and advised them to either put empty water sachets in their vehicle, pockets or bags and properly dispose them off when they arrive at their destinations.

“I will encourage women to desist from littering the environment with plastic bags they were served with at markets, rather endeavour to use baskets or sacks to carry their goods from markets,” Very Rev. Terkper stressed and recounted how food vendors used to sell with leaves, paper, wooden cups and plates and plastics was now the order of the day.

 Gifty Agyeiwaa Badu, Director of NCCE, Ningo-Prampram, asked the citizenry to see it as their responsibility to keep their environment clean as in addition to its health benefits, the 1992 Constitution placed an obligation on them to protect and safeguard the environment for posterity.

She observed that Sustainable Development Goal (6) also sought to “ensure availability, sustainable management of water and sanitation for all while 14 demands conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources to drive global systems that make earth habitable for humankind. –GNA