Regional News of Tuesday, 9 November 2004

Source: GNA

Mfantsipim School gets an incinerator

Cape Coast, Nov.9, GNA- A 30-mllion cedis incinerator constructed for the Mfantsipim School, by the Ashanti Region branch of the Mfantsipim Old Boys Association (MOBA), to ensure efficient waste disposal, was on Tuesday inaugurated at a ceremony on the school compound.

The inauguration of the incinerator, formed part of activities marking the school's 128th anniversary celebration, which is to be climaxed with a speech-and prize-giving day on Saturday, November 13.

Inaugurating it, Dr Benoni Bondzi-Simpson, a private medical practitioner, and an old boy of the school, noted that with the tremendous increase in solid waste, following the emergence of fast food joints, take- away items, bottled and bagged water, the use of incinerators, would, to a large extent, help in the effective management of solid waste disposal in the country.

He observed that the consistent attempt to effectively dispose off solid waste in the country, had rather "shifted the eyesore from one place to the other", and called on all Ghanaians to help ensure effective waste management in the country.

Dr. Wilfred Amoo-Gottfried, chairman of the branch, described waste management as a great challenge to most communities and the country at large, and echoed calls on all Ghanaians to address the situation.

He said in providing the incinerator for the school, the association realised the students alone, cannot handle the enormous waste generated and charged them to manage the facility well.

The headmaster, Mr. Crosby Ashun, expressed concern that rampant and indiscriminate disposal of refuse, "has become the order of the day", with the problem of waste disposal, seeming to defy solutions. According to him, a number of measures adopted by the school, including the cleaning of the compound every morning to enhance environmental hygiene, were hindered due to the lack of an appropriate disposal point.

He, in this regard, thanked the old boys, for the gesture and promised that the incinerator would be put to good use to ensure good sanitary conditions at the school.