The Chief Executive Officer of MAGTWINS Eagle Foundation, Mrs Patricia Kwarteng, has intensified calls for Ghanaians to abandon the use of polythene bags and single-use plastics, describing them as key drivers of perennial flooding and environmental degradation.
Mrs Kwarteng, who has so far educated over a thousand Ghanaians through her sanitation campaign, said the country must urgently return to traditional, eco-friendly practices that kept communities clean before plastics became widespread.
Addressing participants during a community outreach, she urged women in particular to lead the change by carrying baskets or paper bags when going to the market. “As a woman, when going to the market you have to go along with your basket or paper bag. That alone can prevent you from wrapping every item with polythene bags,” she advised.
According to her, the culture of wrapping even the smallest items in plastic has become a silent disaster. She noted that after every heavy downpour, streets and drains are littered with polythene bags and plastic sachets, blocking waterways and triggering floods.
“It’s about time Ghanaians went back to our olden days’ method where no plastic or polythene bags were used in our various markets. That was when our gutters were free and our communities were clean,” Mrs Kwarteng stated.
She also turned her attention to sachet water vendors and consumers, urging them to adopt safer disposal habits. Mrs Kwarteng proposed that buyers should carry reusable water bottles so that sellers can pour the water into them, while the empty sachets are collected and disposed of properly by the vendor.
“Anyone buying sachet water should use a water bottle. Let the seller pour the water into your bottle and take back the sachet to dispose of it in a proper place. Sanitation must be their top priority,” she said.
Mrs Kwarteng lamented that flooding has become widespread, yet the aftermath always exposes the same problem: choked drains filled with plastic waste. “Flooding is all over. And after the flooding, what do you see? Plastic polythene bags choked in gutters. We are causing our own problems.”
She stressed that sanitation is a shared responsibility and called on every Ghanaian to play their part. “When you finish eating or drinking from anything plastic, don’t dump the rubbish in the gutter or on the floor. Put it in a bin or keep it in your bag until you find one.”
The MAGTWINS Eagle Foundation CEO further tasked Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to scale up public education, especially among market women. She observed that many traders dump refuse in the market and abandon it, a practice that clogs drains and worsens flooding during the rainy season.
“It’s about time the Municipal and District Assemblies educated market women who dump refuse in the market and leave it there, because it also causes flooding,” she noted.
Mrs Kwarteng called for stricter enforcement of sanitation bye-laws alongside sustained education. She appealed to schools, churches, mosques, and traditional leaders to join the campaign to reduce plastic waste.
She added that her foundation will continue rolling out community sensitisation programmes across the country to promote the use of baskets, paper bags, and reusable containers as alternatives to polythene.
“Everyone has a role to play when it comes to sanitation. It is everyone’s responsibility to keep Ghana clean. If we change our attitude towards plastics today, we will save our communities from floods tomorrow,” Mrs Kwarteng concluded.
Sompaonline.com/Bawa Baidoo