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The Maritime / Maritime Protection Bureau – Ghana (BMMP-Ghana) is asking President Akufo-Addo to ban the unique use of plastic, which is one of the leading causes of economic losses for the country. country.
In a petition to the president, the group noted that single-use plastics also posed a serious threat to marine life, public health, livestock, wildlife and also contributed to increased levels of pollution on land. and in the waters.
According to the group, its ban will help improve public health, create decent jobs, combat climate change (by improving marine ecology), increase incomes and protect life on earth and on the sea.
Read the complete petition below:
7th June 2019
His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana
The jubilee house
Accra, Ghana.
Dear Mr. President,
PETITION: PROHIBITED IN PLASTIC FOR SINGLE USE. THIS IS A CAUSE OF ECONOMIC LOSS.
Your Excellency, allow us to present to you a petition which disturbs a question of national interest critical with regard to pollution by single-use plastics.
Office of Marine / Marine Protection – Ghana (BMMP-Ghana), a non-profit civil society initiative formed by enthusiastic seafarers and marine / maritime puritans contributing to the #BeatPollution initiative GURUS – A Voluntary group announced its petition in accordance with United Nations Environment Program: overcoming pollution for a pollution-free planet
Your Excellency, single-use plastics are a serious cause of economic losses and a serious threat to marine life, public health, livestock, wildlife, and also contribute to the increasing levels of pollution on and in the waters. Plastic waste also clogs drainage systems (causing floods) and severely affects fishing, tourism and recreation, energy, shipping and the marine ecosystem. The situation is ubiquitous and has serious negative economic repercussions.
Mr. President, this issue is of concern to the Office of the Protection of the Sea and the Sea of Ghana because almost all the great drains of our cities flow into the ocean, a precious natural source that drives most of Ghana's economic activities. . For example, more than 2.6 million Ghanaians, representing 10% of the population, depend on the fishing industry for their livelihood, and more than 3.5 billion people in the world depend on the ocean as their main source of income. food source.
Your Excellency, research published in Science Advance in 2015 confirms that about 9% of all plastic waste ever produced was recycled, while 12% was incinerated and 80% remained in the natural environment and was washed by our rivers and our drains. in the ocean.
Your excellence, single use plastics The problem of sanitation in Ghana. Plastics are more than 80 percent waste generated in our homes, markets and other public places, with biodegradable and chemical waste constituting the remaining 20%.
According to our Ministry of Sanitation, Ghana spends $ 290 million a year on sanitation. At a world economic forum in 2018, a researcher said that pollution from marine plastics cost the world up to $ 2.5 billion a year. They reiterated that the damage caused by the presence of plastics in the ocean was worth about $ 13 billion a year in losses for tourism and recreation, shipping and fishing.
The United Nations has indicated that there are already 5 000 billion pieces of plastic in the ocean, that 8 million tons enter the ocean each year and that if we continue to produce and to do not dispose of it properly, the plastic will carry it over the fish in the ocean by 2050.
Your Excellency, Ghana's fisheries sector plays an important role in contributing significantly to national economic development objectives related to employment, livelihoods, foreign exchange earnings, security food and poverty reduction. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the fishing industry employs about 10% of the country's population, which represents about 2.6 million people.
Plastic pollution in the world's oceans costs society billions of dollars every year in damage and lost resources, as research shows. Prohibiting it will help improve public health, create decent jobs, combat climate change (through the enhancement of marine ecology), increase incomes and protect life on earth and on the sea
Your Excellency, Uganda, has recently become the 34th country to ban the single-use plastic (BBC). France, Italy, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and many major American, Australian and British cities have banned single-use plastic bags. Some countries have imposed a tax on plastic, which has yielded promising results, but the ban on single-use plastic bags remains a better solution than taxation.
Your Excellency, we trust your commitment to the progress of Ghana and its citizens. We all have a responsibility to advocate for a bold commitment to overcoming pollution in order to bequeath a pollution-free planet to our children and to future generations.
Finally, let us wish you the direction and blessings of God.
Thank you.
[email protected]Contact person: Ajerigo James Akubilla
0241245666
With consideration
Team of the Ghana Marine and Marine Protection Bureau and the signatories of the petition.
Ajerigo James Akubilla …………………………… …. Administrator ……………………………………………
Ivan Kwetey Nartey ………………………………… ..Secretary ……………………………………… ….
Eric Antwi Bosiako …………………………………… Member ………………………………………… ..
Abraham Addotey Bulley …………………………… Director ……………………………………… ….
Asaana Alhbadan ……………………………………… ..Member …………………………………………
James Southerland Atiapa …………………………… Member ………………………………………….
Herbert Sydney Dadzi ………………………………. Organizer……………………………………….
Moses Donkor ………………………………… …………….. Member ……………………………………… .. .
Quashie Avadeye ……………………………………… … Member …………………………………………
Ramson Anane ………………………………… ……………. Director ……………………………………… ..
Wisdom Adogoli ……………………………… …………….. Director ……………………………………… ..
Ayeebo Kwame ………………………………………… … Organizer ………………………………………
Mabel Inkoom …………………………………………… ..Member …………………………………………
Lardi Djarfo ……………………………………………… … Member …………………………………………
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