Former President of the Republic of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings has commended Zoomlion Ghana Limited and the Jospong Group of Companies for their active and commendable services in the waste management industry in Ghana.

He said if it was not because of the waste management companies especially Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Ghana’s waste problem would have reached catastrophic levels.

The former President was speaking at this year’s Zoomlion and Jospong Group of Companies’ Annual Thanksgiving Service at the companies’ head office in Accra where he was guest of honour today.

He appreciated Jospong’s commitment to Godliness and expressed happiness in joining them to thank God for HIS blessings to Ghana as a whole.

Mr.Rawlings said the complex nature of the waste management problem in Ghana requires not only Zoomlion and the Jospong Group of Companies but a concerted effort of all Ghanaians to commit to a clean environment.

“The role of government in ensuring that the menace is confronted in a serious manner cannot be overemphasized. In spite of the roles played by Zoomlion and others in refuse disposal and management business, there are still heaps of refuse, choked gutters, rivers overflowing with filth and our own coastal belt doomed with a sinking amount of waste”.

He said available data indicates that a staggering 8 million tons of plastic waste has been dumped in the Ocean as a result of bad human attitudes worldwide adding that an epidemic looms if we don’t change out attitude a situation that has affected the marines so much that fishes now eat plastics.

He was happy that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government has established the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources to deal with sanitation issues directly and opened up the opportunity for other entrepreneurs to participate in the waste management process adding this will engender fair competition,more efficient waste management practices among competitors and value for money in the system.

While the government is keen in ensuring our environment is clean, we Ghanaians have to show unrelenting commitment in disposing of our waste properly and desist from dumping of refuse in our water bodies, reckless defecation in our coastal belt and criminal dumping of bucket-loads of refuse on the shoulders of our roads.

This year’s theme is “The Lord Has Done Great Things For Us (Psalm 126:3)”.

Mr.Jerry Rawlings proposed a social vigilante group to be mobilized nationwide devoid of the national security agencies to arrest and discipline any Ghanaian who defies the standards and defecates or dumps in the open before handing them over to the police.

He said Zoomlion has been improving day by day such that the started with the manual to motorist tricycles to the bolar taxis, waste tracts to an integrated waste system in Ghana.

The Chairman of the Pentecost Church, Rev. Eric Kofi Nyamekye who preached the sermon urged Ghanaian politicians to sow seeds in tears for a better Ghana tomorrow. He said Ghanaians are impatient and we do not want politicians who will make lofty promises and deliver nothing.

He cautions pastor and men of god who wants to reach and exhausted to allow God to raise them up and not they themselves.