Zoomlion Ghana, a waste management company, on Friday launched the Eastern Regional Sanitation Task Force at a ceremony in Koforidua.

The task force among other things would monitor and educate the people on clean-up activities.

Mr. Ernest Kusi, Regional Manager of Zoomlion, said the company and other waste contractors as well as all stakeholders in the sanitation industry are joining hands with Zoomlion Alliance and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) to implement the Sanitation Task Force programme.

He said in pursuance of the company’s quest to help change the attitude of Ghanaians towards environmental sanitation issues in the region, clean-up exercises would be organized every Saturday.

Mr. Kusi appealed to the people in the region to join hands with the task force to roll the project, which he said would provide employment for 1,750 people.

Mr. Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, said the programme, which is nationwide, would involve the deployment of logistics, materials and personnel over a period of three months.

He said there would be nationwide public education the Task force would carry out.

He said Zoom Alliance was providing 20 compactor trucks, 20 skip trucks, wheel barrows and many other logistics that would be needed for the exercise.

Mr. Terlabi said to ensure that the National Sanitation Task Force did not become a one-day wonder sustained efforts would be made to engage communities, market centres and the general public to maintain good sanitation habits.

Mr. R.M. Inkumsah, the Regional Environmental Health Officer, said the government and the MLGRD alone could not cope with the management of waste both liquid and solid, therefore it had become expedient to include other stakeholders.

He said the formation of Zoom Alliance by Zoomlion Ghana Limited to bring all collaborators in the fight against filth was laudable.

Mr. Inkumsah said the Millennium Development Goals 1-7 are all sanitation related and if sanitation is improved most of the health problems would be solved.