Sunyani, Oct. 31 96 Mr. Kwame Gariba, Head of the Northern Zone in-charge of operations of Zoomlion, has appealed to media practitioners in Brong-Ahafo Region to assist in championing the cause of environmental protection and cleanliness.

Mr. Gariba, who made the appeal at a media briefing in Sunyani, said the media's support in the company's sensitization of the public on maintaining good and proper sanitation practices would ensure a clean environment not only in Sunyani but the region as a whole. Mr. Gariba complained that the attitude of many people towards sanitation matters in Sunyani posed 93a big challenge" to the operations= of the company in the municipality.

He, therefore, stressed that the media had a major role to play if Zoomlion is to achieve its sanitation target for the municipality. Mr. Gariba revealed that some waste-bins, which were placed at some vantage points, in the municipality, to keep waste materials for collection by the company's sanitary workers for eventual disposal at appropriate places, were instead found being used to store water by some individuals. Mr. Solomon Agyemang-Duah, Communications Officer of the company, said Zoomlion, an environmental sanitation and waste management company, was als= o operating in some other African countries including Togo, Guinea, Angola, Benin and Zambia.

Mr. Agyemang-Duah stated that the company was not only engaged in sweeping on the streets and other sanitation tasks but also had workers handling its rice and maize farms sited in the Northern, Upper-East and Upper-West Regions. He said the Company's idea of adding farming venture to its operatio= ns began early this year, adding that Yendi and Savelugu, both in the Northern Region had 130 and 200 acres of rice under cultivation, respectively. Cow-Pea is being cultivated in the Upper-East Region with Maize at Tumu, in the Upper-West Region, Mr. Agyemang-Duah, said. The Communications Officer said the company had a core staff of 2,800 with additional hands of 29,700 workers recruited from the National Youth and Employment Programme (NYEP). He said the Company was collaborating with the Coca-Cola Company to provide it with a plastic recycling machine to convert waste into solid or liquid forms for useful purposes. Mr. Agyemang-Duah said waste management is a capital intensive busines= s and Zoomlion working as a limited liability company need assistance from other stakeholders so that it could operate on scientific basis.