Abibiman Foundation World Environment Day 2018

World Environment Day June 5

Theme: Beat Plastic Pollution 

Slogan: Love your Environment

World Environment Day (WED) is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years it has grown to be a broad, global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated by stakeholders in over 100 countries. It also serves as the ‘people’s day’ for doing something positive for the environment, galvanizing individual actions into a collective power that generates an exponential positive impact on the planet.

With 1 million plastic drinking bottles purchased every minute and up to 5 trillion disposable plastic bags used every year, plastic pollution is threatening our ecosystems, biodiversity because Plastic waste when left in soils have an impact on soil fertility.

Abibiman Foundation urges government, business, local communities, and indigenous people to come together explore sustainable alternatives and urgently reduce the production and excessive of plastic polluting that damaging marine life and threatening human health.

Abibiman Foundation believe young people have the key to end plastic pollution because plastic pollution is a lifestyles and have a direct effect on young people. We have a greater responsibility as people to ensure that the environment is improved and maintaining the environmental integrity is the responsibility of every individual within the society

Let use innovative means to turn the overwhelming rubbish and filth around them into life enhancing resources and use innovative means to turn the overwhelming rubbish and filth around into life enhancing resources.

Abibiman Foundation has contributed tremendously in creating awareness about our Planet and Human health in Ghana and we have been at the forefront of environment advocacy campaigns.

What behavioral changes are you making to reduce plastic pollutants? Let’s all play our part to turn trash into treasure. World Environment Day is the opportunity for everyone to realize the responsibility to take action for planet and Human health

PRESS STATEMENT ON WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2018

PRESS STATEMENT ON WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

Plastic waste management is of great necessity not for our cities and urban areas but for the rural areas as well. We are always concerned with how we can properly and sustainably manage the tons of plastic waste generated every day to help maintain our environment to save our mother earth and help humans to live a good healthy environment. Plastic pollution however can be attributed the phenomenon of overcrowding in our cities which has caused a rapid increase in the plastic wastes generated. Unfortunately, the amount of plastic waste, one of the most important by-products of an urban lifestyle, is growing even faster than the rate of urbanization.

We have had serveral methods as a nation in trying to dispose off or properly manage this plastic waste mostly through combustion which is not environmentally friendly since it releases carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This carbon dioxide is a major contributor to climate change. Also plastic wastes are also used for landfilling and because they are not bio-degradable, they do not decompose.

Some of these plastic waste are dumped into the ocean which become marine debris. Marine debris is a problem that affects these coastal areas and the sea floor at all depths, and its impact is of global significance.  It has been recognized as a serious pollutant for over a long time but unfortunately has only gained widespread recognition in the recent decade. This cause habitat destruction by affecting water quality and causing physical damage to sensitive ecosystems.

     

If the situation is not given the attention it deserves major changes in environmental conditions or interdependent relationships can cause the marine ecosystem to fail and hence affect the coast‘s ability to adequately provide for the plants, animals and humans that depend on it and each other to survive.

In this light, Abibiman Foundation believes that as the world and Ghana marks World Environment Day with the theme ‘’Beat Plastic Pollution’’, intensive education is urgently needed to raise Ghanaians’ awareness of the negative impact of irresponsible waste disposal in general and plastic waste in particular. Education must also be used to forge a positive change in our attitude to plastic waste management mostly among young people.

We believe that a plastic waste management fund should be created to support recycling and upgrading of plastic waste infrastructure to promote private-public partnerships in the development and sustainable management of plastic waste infrastructure in the country. We believe that the fund should be resourced with voluntary contributions from industry and industry players, Government and other donors; and these contributions should be tax exempt.

While there are laws regulating the dumping of trash at sea and on shore, the global nature of marine debris, the inability to confine debris within territorial boundaries and the complexity of identifying debris sources have made effective laws difficult to develop and even harder to enforce. Abibiman Foundation is of the view that, the key to controlling marine litter is to tackle it at source and this is not only consistent with the precautionary principle, but would appear to be the only management option that is economically sustainable in the longer term.

In due course, collaboration and harmonization by the government of Ghana with other riparian countries along the Gulf of Guinea should take the obligatory actions and measures including cleaning campaigns that can help keep the coastline free from marine debris in the long term.

Abibiman Foundation is therefore making a passionate appeal to government, all civil society organizations and the general public to join the campaign to end plastic pollution in our ocean.

Abibiman Foundation is calling for independent committee to assess impact of oil spillage in Tema

PRESS RELEASE

June 4, 2018

INVESTIGATE & ASSESS IMPACT OF OIL SPILLAGE IN TEMA

Abibiman Foundation is calling on Government of Ghana to immediately set up a independent committee to conduct an immediate investigations and environmental assessments on the impacts of the oil spillage at Tema port and its environs on Saturday, May 26, 2018 at 9:42pm, the vessel which was carrying 1,200 metric tons of light crude oil. 

Articles 10 and 11 of Abidjan Convention require Parties to take all appropriate measures to prevent, reduce, combat and control coastal

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 14) Target 14.1: By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution

The impact of this spillage must be monitored to ensure that both the environment and livelihoods of the fishermen and other local dependents within the catchment area are adequately compensated and protected.

Abibiman is worried about the current lack of capacity in oil spillage response and the failure to ensure compliance and enforcement of quality standards to prevent avoidable accidents from occurring.

These failings, once again, has culminated into huge environmental destruction of coastal and inland biodiversity which rural community livelihoods depend on. 

We urge the Ministry of Transport, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Ghana Navy, Ghana Maritime Authority and Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development through its regulatory agencies to recognize the urgent need for a new independent mechanism that would conform to international best practice to prevent, identify, and respond to such oil spills in Ghana and clean up contaminated sites for the benefit of local communities and people living in the affected area.  

Abibiman urge agencies responsible to ensure immediate clean up and restoration of the damaged environment in the affected areas since it plays a critical role in the livelihoods of residents within the Tema metropolis and the country at large.

Government must put all necessary measures in place to avoid reoccurrences of similar oil spillage in the future.

                        

Signed: Kenneth Nana Amoateng-http://www.abibimmanfoundation.org/info@abibimanfoundation.org