Mr John Sackey, the Upper East Regional Manager of Zoomlion Ghana, has reiterated a call on the public to take sanitation issues seriously.

This, he said would ensure that their environs were kept clean always as sanitation issues were a shared responsibility, which needed change in attitude.

Mr Sackey who made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region said “In spite of the efforts of Zoomlion GH to keep to its mandate of total waste solutions, it is also a shared responsibility of all to keep their surroundings and environment clean”, he added.

He said a lot of effort was made by the government to ensure a clean environment at a high cost and indicated that irrespective of what Zoomlion was doing, a change of attitude by all was most important.

“Waste management is expensive and therefore government cannot do everything, we need the commitment of people to compliment efforts of government to keep the environment clean”, he added.

According to him, the best way to solve waste problems was source management and Zoomlion Ghana had incorporated the distribution of household waste bins to ensure waste generation was controlled at source of generation before a proper disposal at the right places.

He was unhappy that households preferred to give their waste bins to mentally challenged persons who discarded the contents and left the bins behind causing more heaps of garbage.

He noted that many Out Patient Department (OPD) cases at health facilities were sanitation related issues and urged all to ensure good environmental sanitation in their communities.

He indicated that littering on streets and creation of small heaps of waste in communities was rampant in the region and called on everybody to be responsible and contribute to good sanitation practices.

On distribution of dustbins in the area, he said the coverage in the Bolgatanga Municipality was 40 per cent and advised households to consider costs incurred in payment of works and fuelling of trucks that conveyed the waste and urged those who expected litter bins to be free to change their minds.

He said Zoomlion GH was shifting to the Polluter pay system, where those who contribute to make the environment dirty would be made to contribute to the cleaning of it.

He urged all households, business entities and institutions to subscribe to the waste bins to help control waste and avoid the litter in communities.