Eco-Brigade: Keeping Our Beaches Clean

In the Feb., 6 2009, edition of TODAY, I wrote an article with the caption “Exploring the Potential of Our Beaches.” In that piece I tried to look at the many beaches along our coastal belts and how as a nation we have not tried to harness its full potential.

The launch of Eco-Brigade at Esiama-Western Region, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Cobby Acheampong

Our coastal beaches have become fertile grounds for people to dump solid wastes and human excreta. Many coastal dwellers wake up every morning and their first place to respond to nature’s call is to go to the beach and defecate. This is most often done in the public full glare, without any thought of what their negative actions could do to the health and life of other people.

In countries like Malaysia, Qatar, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United States of America and many other advanced nations they have explored the potential of their beaches and they are in turn reaping the benefits in terms of revenue roped in by foreign tourists.

That is why Eco-Brigade—an initiative by Zoil Ghana Limited—launched in Esiama a coastal area in the Western Region is refreshing. Zoil Ghana Limited is a subsidiary company of Zoomlion, the number one company in waste management in the country.

The project was established on Dr Nkrumah’s Workers Brigade which was formed in the late 50s and spanned through the early 60s. That means that the project will bring a lot benefits to Ghanaians. In fact it is imperative that we support projects such as Eco-Brigade which will improve the lot of our people.

The primary objective of Eco-Brigade is to ensure that beaches in Ghana are always kept clean and safe from the people who leave along the coastal communities. The project as disclosed by the Manager of Zoil Services Limited at the launch in Esiama will provide training and develop the skills of those who will be employed.

It comes as great news that the project would also offer jobs to 10,000 people in the coastal communities in the four coastal regions namely: Central, Greater Accra, Western and Volta. As a Beach and Oil Spill Response Organization, Eco-Brigade has come at the right time especially when within the next two years Ghana will start drilling its oil.

More importantly, Eco-Brigade will not just see to the day-to-day cleaning of our beaches, but will also plant economic trees such as coconut along the coast to support our emerging oil industry. As the Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Hon. Sherry Ayittey put it: “they will also plant to replenish the depleted mangroves.”

In Ghana beaches in some coastal areas are only clean when such places have hotel facilities which are being manned by private entities. This is because such private-owned hotels employ the services of people to make sure that their beach sites are clean for their guests—since many of the foreign guests tend to sunbath at the beaches. It stands to reason that when such beaches lack facilities such as hotels; their sites are enough to drive people away.

Another good thing about Eco-Brigade is that its work will cut across the responsibilities of several ministries among which include the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Local government and Rural Development and others. This also means that many ministries would be actively supporting the operations of Eco-Brigade.

One significant thing that the Eco-Brigade project will bring to Ghana is that it will also go a long way to boost tourism in our coastal areas. The potential of our four coastal regions in terms of tourists’ attraction cannot be overemphasized. For a start our beach sites are going to be properly taken care of which, of course, means that we are going to have many foreign tourists coming into the country and visiting our beaches.

It therefore becomes an avenue where facilities such as beach resorts can be built to enable us as a nation maximum revenue from foreign tourists who will visit such facilities. The proceeds from these facilities could be used to built schools, health centers, recreational facilities and the rest.

It is an established fact that with the impending oil and gas industry, Eco-Brigade will create more jobs for the indigenous people who reside along the coastal communities. Whilst we lend our support to the project, I believe it is instructive that the over 10,000 youths who will be employed under the project would take full advantage of this opportunity and work with diligence to enable us reap the positive results of Zoomlion’s initiative.

We must all welcome the Eco-Brigade project and ensure that they work to protect the country’s coastal heritage.

BY ATO KEELSON