Tamale, Oct. 18, GNA- Mr. Issah Ketekewu, Deputy Northern Regional Minister has urged school children in the region to cultivate the habit of tree planting in and around their school compounds and in their communities to help protect the environment.

He called on them to undertake regular clean-up exercises within their surroundings and educate their parents on sound environmental practices to sensitise their communities.

Mr. Ketekewu was addressing children from selected junior secondary schools in the Tamale Metropolis after an environmental sanitation campaign and a Ramadan general clean-up organised by the Ghana National Scholarship Beneficiaries Association (GNASBA) to mark the 13th anniversary of the Association in Tamale on Wednesday. The clean-up exercise was sponsored by Fan Milk. The school children undertook a three-hour clean-up exercise in the Metropolis to sensitise the public on the need for environmental cleanliness.

Mr. Ketekewu attributed the rising environmental degradation in the country to indiscipline, saying: "It is common to see both young and elderly people defecating indiscriminately in public. The Deputy Minister, on behalf of GNASBA appealed to NGOs and all meaning Ghanaians to help raise 20,000 litterbins for schools and communities throughout the country to help enforce cleanliness.

Mr. Ketekewu used the occasion to appeal to the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) to return to the classrooms while negotiations on their conditions of service with the government continue.

Mr. Baffour Akwasi Oppong, National Chairman of the GNASBA said the environmental sanitation and education campaign seeks to promote the Schools Health and Agricultural Programmes, as a means to inculcate in the youth a new sense of cultural attitudes to sustain good waste management practices and environmental protection.

He hoped the exercise, which forms part of activities to usher in the holy Ramadan Festival, would become a regular feature in the Moslem communities.