GRi Newsreel 15 - 08 -
2003
President Kufuor begins a week's tour of Ashanti Region
Nkrumah's remains was transferred without family's consent
Conflicting messages affecting anti-AIDS campaign
Abolish harmful cultural practices against women
Legal framework needed for AIDS patients
NCCE urged to prove its neutrality
Married couples urged to register marriages
Proposed fees are for City Campus of UG, not all universities
Mampong campus of UEW gets GETFund assistance
Minister appeals for education on Insurance Scheme
EP Church of Ghana adopts new name
Let's Make Journalism More Potent - Journalists urged
Chainsaw operation increases in Begoro
Eighty-two percent of sachet water in Kumasi unsafe
Ghana to completely phase out CFC use by 2010
TELEFOOD 2003 launched
President Kufuor begins a week's tour of Ashanti Region
Dadieso (Ashanti Region) 15 August 2003 - President John Kufuor on Thursday addressed a durbar of the chiefs and people of Dadieso, the first Asante town on the Accra - Kumasi Highway, to begin a week's tour of the Ashanti Region.
A programme drawn for his first official visit said he would tour all the 18 districts, municipal and metropolitan areas to inspect development projects and address durbars of chiefs and people.
President Kufuor pledged that the government would construct a dual carriageway from Accra to Kumasi as a legacy for the people. He said the tour was his first visit to the Region to thank the people for their massive support during the 2000 general election and the encouragement they continued to give to the government.
Baffour Kwaku Ofori II, Omanhene of Asubua, who poured libation for President Kufuor's safe arrival, appealed to the government to provide basic amenities for the people.
President Kufuor made whistle stops at Asankare and Juaso to address the chiefs and the people. At Asankare, he said the government had provided ¢6.7bn to the Asante Akim South District for development. Addressing the people of Juaso, President Kufuor appealed to them to ensure that the chieftaincy disputes in the town that had affected their development was resolved.
He said: "A durbar could not be organised here because of the chieftaincy dispute. I hope this problem would be solved soon in order that Juaso, an ancient town of the Asante Kingdom, could be developed to befit its status."
President Kufuor said the assistance offered by the government would enable cocoa farmers to increase their yields and earn more revenue from their toil. He said the rehabilitation of the roads linking villages in the area would be completed.
At Obogu, President Kufuor said the government would save about ¢670bn from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative this year to undertake development projects in rural communities. He said the government was determined to change the economic fortunes of the country and appealed to the people to support it to achieve that aim.
Nana Owusu Asiamah, Obogumanhene, commended the government for the number of development projects it had initiated in the District.
He, however, urged the government to rehabilitate the feeder roads in the
area, which were in very deplorable states, to enable farmers to transport their
foodstuff to marketing centres.
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Nkrumah's remains was transferred without family's consent
Sekondi (Western Region) 15 August 2003 - A witness at Thursday's sitting of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) at Sekondi said the remains of Ghana's first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah was removed from its original tomb at Nkroful to the mausoleum in Accra without the knowledge of the family.
Nana Bulumia-Twum Kwasi, a charted accountant, who said he is a nephew of the late president, said the remains of Dr Nkrumah was removed under the pretext of sending it to a hospital in Accra for rehabilitation.
He said due to many years of neglect, the remains were becoming decomposed and so when the message to rehabilitate it was received, no one protested. However, the people became disappointed when they later heard that it was not going to be sent back.
Nana Kwasi told the Commission that soldiers, looted Dr Nkrumah's property and that of his immediate family members who lived with him at the Flagstaff House after his overthrow.
The items included jewellery, research findings, and ornaments, Nana Kwasi said and appealed to the Commission to help the family to trace those properties. He also wants the district capital of Nzema-East, Axim to be reverted to Nkroful. He called for the rehabilitation of a family house that was destroyed by soldiers after the 1966 coup, while a palace built by Dr Nkrumah at Nsuaem, which is now being used as a police station, should be reverted to the family.
Nana Kwasi urged the Commission to recommend compensation and gratuity for the late President and recognition for the family. When asked by the Commission to clarify some of the claims in his statement, he could not do so.
For instance, he could not substantiate his statement about the 25 gold bars, which he said, were given to the late president by the Ashanti Goldfields Company, saying it was a rumour. He was told that investigations conducted had proved that Ashanti Goldfields had never given any gold bars to the late President as gifts.
Some members of the Commission also told the witness that television sets and computers said to have belonged to the late Dr Nkrumah and among items looted were not found in the country at that time.
Prof Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, member of the Commission, told witness that it was up to the family to look for the Will of the late President to know what it entailed and not the business of the Commission to do that. She also said the Justice Apaloo Commission recommended that some of the property of Dr Nkrumah be returned to the family.
The house of Madam Fathia Nkrumah has also been returned to her, she said. Madam Theresa Nyamekye, another witness told the Commission that in 1979, soldiers at Moree Junction in the Central Region seized bundles of khaki and other fabric, which she bought in Accra.
She said was sent to a place in Cape Coast popularly called "firing squad", and was tortured there and later dumped in a small cell at the Cape Coast police station. The following day, the soldiers came back to tell her that, they found that she did genuine business, and asked her to go, adding that most of her wares were stolen by the soldiers when they were returned.
Ambrose Yankey Jnr, who said he was one of Dr Nkrumah's security guard, told the Commission that it would be proper to compensate the late Presidents security corps at that time saying, some of them either died or lost their jobs in the course of their duty.
Yankey Jnr. said he was one of the loyal security personnel of Dr. Nkrumah who decided to stay with him in Guinea after his overthrow in 1966 until his death in 1972 when they brought his body to Ghana.
He said on their arrival, they were detained at the Peduase Lodge for about one month before they were released. He told the Commission that he and other security personnel lived at the Switch Back Road and on their return to the country after six and a half years in Guinea, his properties, including jewels had been taken away and ¢800 in his bank account frozen.
After petitioning the Ombudsman, he was paid some compensation and placed on the pension scheme, he said. Samuel Kwabena Boateng of Kwesimitsim, near Takoradi, said on four occasions between 1978 and 1983, soldiers seized goods from his store at the Takoradi Market Circle and this affected his life.
He appealed to the Commission to recommend adequate compensation to be paid
to him.
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Conflicting messages affecting anti-AIDS campaign
Akwansrem (Ashanti Region) 15 August 2003 - Dr Seth Ayi, Executive Director of Hope For Humanity (HFH), an NGO, has condemned conflicting messages being churned out on the campaign against HIV/AIDS. "While we are told to abstain from sex or delay sex from well meaning media on one hand, films and music from TV, FM Radio stations, Video studios and stations seem to suggest Love Sex, Try it".
Dr Ayi was speaking at an HIV/AIDS sensitisation durbar at Akwansrem in the Adansi East District organised by HFH and sponsored by the Ghana AIDS Commission.
It aimed at sensitising the people to adopt healthier lifestyles to prevent
HIV in the district. Dr Ayi called on civil society organisations and other
bodies to act decisively to stop the confusion being churned out to the youth.
He lauded the current "multi-pronged and multi-sectoral" approach to
stem the pandemic, especially among the youth and other vulnerable groups.
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Abolish harmful cultural practices against women
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 August 2003 - Participants at a day's sensitisation forum on Thursday, called for the abolishing of harmful cultural practices that promote the spread of HIV/AIDS. Cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation, Trokosi and widow inheritance were listed as some of the practices that promote the spread of the deadly menace.
Such harmful cultural practices according to the participants, which formed part of violence against women and children and an obstacle to equality, was also an intolerable offence to human dignity.
The forum, which was organised in Accra by the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs in collaboration with the National Council on women (NCWD) and Development, was on harmful traditional practices and it implications for HIV/AIDS.
Participants were from the various women organisations throughout the country. Mrs Cynthia Addison, Member of the Ghana Association of Women Welfare (GAWW) said the use of instruments like knives, razor blades and pieces of glass to perform FGM in multiple operations without proper sterilization was harmful.
"This exposes the innocent girls to contracting the HIV virus apart from the other infections that they might be exposed to", she said.
FGM, which is being practiced by some ethnic groups in the country mostly in the three Northern Regions, has a prevalence rate of between 9 and 12 per cent. It is, however, estimated that Kassena -Nankana District alone has a prevalence rate of 77 per cent.
Cromwell Awadey of International Needs, Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, who talked on Trokosi system and its implication for HIV/AIDS, said priests engaged in polygamous marriages under Trokosi exposed the women to HIV/AIDS infection.
He said Trokosi had serious developmental and health consequences for women and called for its abolishment. Mrs Marian A. Tackie, Acting Executive Director of NCWD, said women continue to fall victim to such harmful practices despite recent developments in healthcare.
She asked those engaged in those practices to stop and free the helpless
women and children from the sufferings.
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Legal framework needed for AIDS patients
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 August 2003 - Miss Gloria Afua Akuffo, Deputy
Attorney-General and Deputy Minister of Justice, on Thursday said unless
government adopted a supportive legal framework, effort to tackle HIV/AIDS
related stigmatisation and discrimination would fail.
She said: "What the government now needs is an anti-discrimination policy supported by relevant law that would ensure the protection of the rights of people living with the disease."
Miss Akuffo said this at the launching of a series of HIV/AIDS legal literacy training workshops to be organised for lawyers and judges, aimed at providing forums for policy makers to continue to dialogue to promote consensus on the disease and its related issues.
The launching was organised by a non-governmental organization, AIDS Alert Ghana in collaboration with the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) and the British Council to usher-in the main workshops to be held in September for over 180 lawyers and judges in the Greater Accra Region.
These workshops to be organised would afford the legal experts an opportunity to exchange information and share legal experiences that would lead to a better coordination and collaboration amongst lawmakers to benefit persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Miss Akuffo commended the NGO for coming out with such a project and said government would strengthen its commitment and work in partnership to bring about the desired change in reversing the HIV/AIDS trend, protect the well-being and promote the quality of life of all Ghanaians.
She expressed regret that persons living with the disease had to endure the stigma, rejection and isolation in addition to the agony of facing a life-threatening condition.
"These feelings and attitudes need to be understood and changed. Getting the facts right about HIV transmission is vital for the well-being of the people with HIV infection as to ensure prevention itself." Prof Sekyi Amoa, Director General of the GAC, said there were lots of legal issues relating to HIV patients that required investigations for the contribution to policy direction and strategy for dealing with the pandemic.
He said the devastating impact of the epidemic required that individuals and societies re-evaluated their attitudes, prejudices and behaviours and that the disease should be seen as a major developmental and human right issue. Prof Amoa said the GAC has as part of its interventions established a legal and ethical sub-committee with the responsibility to develop policies that would address the legal and human right issues relating to HIV/AIDS.
Ms Anna Bossman, Deputy Commissioner of the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), who chaired the function, supported the need for a legal framework to protect the rights of persons living with the disease. She said it was against one's human right if one is forced to undertake compulsory HIV screening and testing, prohibit infected person in certain employment and occupations or refuse such a person the right to marry or give birth.
Mrs Esther Baah Amoako, Executive Director of AAG, said the project which would be extended to other legal experts in other parts of the country was part of the organisation's initiative to provide legal advice to person's living with HIV and to promote advocacy to highlight the needs and rights of such persons.
She said an HIV/AIDS 2002 situational report by the GAC revealed that efforts aimed at creating a supportive legal, ethical and policy environment for those with the disease constituted only 32. 4 per cent of what was required while effort aimed at promoting their rights constituted 46.4 per cent.
She said participants after attending the workshops would form a network to
support efforts at creating a supportive environment for people living with
HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and make recommendations to the GAC to aid policy formulation.
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NCCE urged to prove its neutrality
Wa (Upper East Region) 15 August 2003 - Godfrey Tangu, Wa Municipal Chief Executive on Wednesday told the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) that it is up to it to prove wrong the perception that the Commission is not politically neutral.
Tangu was speaking at a public forum organized by the regional office of the NCCE at Wa. He said the claim that the organization is now politically neutral is not enough to convince the present administration until it proves the contrary.
He commended the NCCE for organizing the forum, which was aimed at forming a regional consultative body to advise and also make inputs for the effective performance of the Commission in the region.
Tangu suggested the translation of the constitution into local languages for
schools. Robert Ekow Dassah, an official of the NCCE in Accra, said an
unspecified number of staff of the NCCE found indulging in politics on behalf of
various parties have been dismissed.
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Married couples urged to register marriages
Larteh-Akuapem (Eastern Region) 15 August 2003 - A traditional ruler has called on the government to mandate the Town and Area Councils to register marriages in their localities to save couples from having to travel to urban centres for the same purpose.
The Gyaasehene of Larteh-Akuapem, Nana Offei Ayensu, said this would encourage couples in the rural areas to understand that registration was not the preserve for only those in the urban centres.
He was speaking at a forum organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) at Larteh in the Eastern Region on Wednesday. The forum afforded the NCCE to explain national policies including the Interstate Succession law to the chiefs and people of the town who were celebrating this year's Ohum Festival.
The Deputy Regional Director of the NCCE, Mr Lord Larbi, told the people
registering their marriage should ensure that surviving spouses and children of
those who die interstate would benefit from the estates of the deceased.
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Proposed fees are for City Campus of UG, not all universities
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 August 2003 - Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education, said on Thursday that the proposed new fees for tertiary education she referred to in her interview with the GNA was in respect of the City Campus of the University of Ghana and not all universities.
In a statement issued in Accra in reaction to a GNA story, which quoted her
as saying negotiations were still going on about the fees to be paid by
university students, she said at no time did a short conversation with the GNA
reporter "stray beyond the City Campus of the University of Ghana.
"I have to state categorically that I have on no occasion said, suggested or intimated the things attributed to me in your story." Ms Ohene said she was asked about the City Campus of the University and the proposed fees for fresh students.
"These I told her, the University authorities were dealing with the matter. I told her the city campus was a new concept in which the University of Ghana was trying to establish a city campus as a separate entity from the main campus in Legon and they had drawn up a programme to put the new concept into effect.
"The proposed fees were, therefore, linked to the budget for the new
programme they were seeking to introduce. "The story I am afraid has caused
a lot of confusion on campuses where the university authorities have quite
properly finished their negotiations on fees and where registrations are
starting and about to start."
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Mampong campus of UEW gets GETFund assistance
Mampong (Ashanti Region) 15 August 2003 - The government has released about ¢6.5bn from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to the Asante-Mampong campus of the University of Education Winneba (UEW) for completion of projects under construction.
They include a modern lecture hall with a seating capacity for 300, offices and apartments, a two-storey science laboratory, a library, a two-storey administration block and a sports complex.
Prof Stephen Osei, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Mampong that each of the projects costs more than ¢1.2bn.
He said the projects, most of which were started in February and were
expected to be completed by December, would transform the University into a
leading Agriculture institution. Prof Osei said the Faculty is committed to
produce a new breed of agricultural science graduates who will teach the subject
in many schools.
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Minister appeals for education on Insurance Scheme
Ho (Volta Region) 15 August 2003 - Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa, Volta Regional Minister, on Wednesday said policies that sought to address the problem of healthcare financing would not be sacrificed on the altar of partisan politics. He appealed to the District Chief Executives (DCEs) in the Region to mount a vigorous campaign to educate the people on the Health Insurance Bill.
Owusu-Yeboa was addressing the second Volta Regional Co-ordinating Council (VRCC) meeting with DCEs and ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
He said the government would continue its bold attempts to solve the myriads of problems confronting the country. The Regional Minister said: "The government has the courage to take those measures, which may be politically risky but necessary in providing solutions to our socio-economic problems."
He said just as the government took some hard but necessary actions that have begun to yield results the proposed health insurance scheme would be pursued to its logical conclusion.
Owusu-Yeboa appealed to the DCEs to promote the President's Special Initiatives (PSI). On Chieftaincy disputes the Regional Minister told the DCEs not to get involved in them or take partisan positions since that would compromise their executive role.
He advised that they could intervene when such disputes tended to breach the
peace saying: "It is not only advisable but also mandatory for you to use
your District Security Committees (DISEC) only to maintain peace and
order."
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EP Church of Ghana adopts new name
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 August 2003 - The Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana, a breakaway church of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana on Thursday announced its new name as the "Global Evangelical Church" in response to a High Court ruling last year, which restrained it not to use its former name.
The Right Reverend Commander Ferdinand Hope Gbewonyo, Moderator of the Church, who announced the change of name at the Church's 62nd annual synod meeting in Accra said: "to let peace prevail, we went through the necessary steps provided by our constitution to have a new name selected.
"On May 3rd 2003 an extra-ordinary synod of the church met and painstakingly, selected a name in readiness to reconcile with our sisters, the E. P. Church, Ghana", he said.
Rev Gbewonyo was addressing over 600 synod delegates comprising pastors, catechists and elders of the church from all over the country, the West Africa Sub-Region and Europe at a four-day meeting on the theme: "Lets Us Work Together In Union With Christ".
Delegates at the meeting would review the past year's activities; take decisions on the way forward and elect new national executives for a four-year term.
The Moderator expressed the hope that with the change of name, the reconciliation process between the church and her sister-church from which it broke off would be expedited to achieve brotherliness and oneness in the body of Christ to move the work of God forward.
He said since no nation or organization could achieve its goals and visions in disunity, the Global Evangelical Church would continue to pursue peace and move on in unity with one another to move both the church and Ghana forward. Rev Gbewonyo commended the government for its commitment towards the execution of the Keta Sea Defence Project and its various policies to provide democratic governance but urged government to deepen democracy in the country.
He also appealed to the government to explore the salt industry in the Keta Lagoon and to make agriculture its top priority since that was the hub of the country.
He said the church would continue to pray for the country and collaborate with all who sought the progress of the nation. Rev Gbewonyo said the church had outlined strategic programmes such as education, health and income generation activities to meet the temporal needs of members alongside evangelisation.
He announced that the church's medical centre at Ejisu Krapa in the Ashanti Region would be relocated to Apromase, near Ejisu and be upgraded to a hospital with the support of the American Leprosy Missions.
Rev Dr Samuel Asore, President, Centre for Pastoral Excellence and Conflict
Resolution, noted that the Church held the key to the success of the nation so
Christians should learn to live together, participate in national affairs and
help bring the needed change.
He said: "We can help build a better nation by doing what is right in our local churches. Forgiving each other, being faithful in our dealings towards one another, loving one another, living disciplined lives and supporting the efforts of government."
Dr Ken Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) in a fraternal message commended the church for its respect of law and for having changed its name. He urged them to continue to pursue peace with it mother-church and also educate its members on the need for reconciliation to heal the wounds of the nation just as the government was doing.
Dr Attafuah said a lot of people had been "wounded over the years and it
was through this process of reconciliation that they would be consoled and be
able to contribute their quota to help develop the country". In a related
development, the E.P Church, Ghana has filed a writ in an Accra High Court
seeking leave to cite the leaders of the breakaway church for contempt.
The case would be heard on 21 August.
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Let's Make Journalism More Potent - Journalists urged
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 August 2003 - Gideon Sackitey, an aspiring
Executive Member of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) on Thursday urged
Journalists to remain committed to the profession to sustain Ghana's fledgling
democracy.
He said Journalists owe it a duty to be as objective as they could while respecting and guarding the image of the Association to preserve and promote the dignity of the profession.
Sackitey said it was the only the way the profession could be made more attractive and urged all Journalists to stand up and be counted. "It's important that Journalists and editors of media houses respect the GJA and its Code of Ethics since this is the only way we can earn respect for ourselves.
"We write, talk and say good things about other professions without caring or putting the same emphasis on ours. Let us develop strong attitudes towards our profession and the Association first," Sackitey said.
In a statement to media houses, Sackitey, a Senior Reporter with the GNA, said the Association has come a long way, and the input of all members, including those in government could make it more potent and attractive. Sackitey called on Journalists to rise up to the new momentum that has brought honour to the profession saying, "we are being noticed and becoming more relevant in the development of our democracy, so let us all give Journalism and the Association the needed push for it to meet the challenges of the times.
"We must all champion the cause of the GJA and democracy better by contributing our quota with the injection of new ideas in organizing ourselves to face the challenges of the time."
On discipline, Sackitey said the days when the Association dealt "softly" with erring members should be a thing of the past adding: "There should be a collective decision to inject strict professionalism and strong regulations that bind all."
He said it would not be wrong to have a law that would mandate the GJA's disciplinary committee to suspend members or their medium for a certain period.
"The idea is not really to punish but to deter members from misconduct. There is nothing more hurting than the knowledge that one could lose the right to publish for a while. Sackitey called for a complete updating of the GJA Register to give a clear picture of those who are real Journalists and in good standing.
He said those who are not Journalists but have found themselves playing that
role should avail themselves to training programmes by the GJA and get
acquainted with the ethics of the profession adding, "it is strange that
some media houses rely heavily on non-professionals to do the job". He
called on employers to increase training programmes for their staff and to
improve on their salaries.
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Chainsaw operation increases in Begoro
Begoro (Eastern Region) 15 August 2003 - Peri-forest reserve communities have been called upon to be vigilant and to arrest chainsaw operators and staff of the Forestry Services Division who assist them to deplete the country's remaining forest resources.
Isaac Boamah Donteng, District Forest Manager, Begoro Forest District, who
made the call, said the connivance of forestry staff in chainsaw operations was
on the increase hence the need for the communities themselves to be on the look
out.
He said the Police were sometimes also implicated, adding: "The forest
belongs to the communities and the nation as a whole hence the need for all to
join hands in saving the nation's remaining forest."
Donteng was speaking to a team of Journalists, who toured some parts of the Eastern Region to see at first hand the state of the nation's forest. He said, "chainsaw operation has become rampant because no capital was needed for its operation, though the returns are huge so far as one was not caught. All that one needed was a chainsaw whether owned or borrowed." Mr Donteng said.
Donteng said the Division in collaboration with the Fanteakwa District Assembly has been making some arrests. "This time the operations are mainly done in the night and the operators are heavily armed," he said. He said the state of degradation in some of the forest reserves in the area was quite alarming and that the Dede and the Worobong North Reserves, which covered a land area of 5,100 and 1,320 hectares, respectively, were totally degraded, becoming more or less savannah grasslands.
For the Worobong South and the Southern Scarp Reserves, which covered an area of 10,620 and 15, 460 hectares, respectively, the level of degradation was 7,434 and 6,184 hectares representing about 70 per cent and 40 per cent of degradation.
Donteng said the only reserve in the area, which had not witnessed any degradation, was the Atewa Reserve, which has its 23,662 hectares intact though there had been occasions that chainsaw operators had stolen a few timber logs from it. He said the Forestry Services Division in collaboration with the fringe communities has embarked on reforestation programmes in the devastated reserves through the Taungya system, which involved the cultivation of food crops alongside timber species on forest-demarcated lands.
Tree species such as Teak, Cedrella, Odum, Wawa and Cassia have been planted.
The objective of the Tuangya system is to give the local communities employment,
boast their food production and grow trees for the conservation of the forest
area. Donteng said the farmers would have a share in the proceeds when the trees
are harvested.
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Eighty-two percent of sachet water in Kumasi unsafe
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 15 August 2003 - Laboratory tests carried out at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has revealed that about 82 percent of sachet water on the market in Kumasi is contaminated and unsafe.
Dr Esi Awuah, a Microbiologist at the University, said what is disturbing is the presence of bacteria that causes typhoid fever in some of the sachet water. She was speaking at a one-day seminar organised by the Association of Processed Drinking Water Producers for its members on quality control standards in Kumasi.
Dr Awuah said it is disheartening that some of the sachet water producers appear to be interested only in money making without regard to safety of consumers.
She noted with concern instances where boreholes and hand-dug wells from which sachet water is produced are sited close to septic tanks and refuse dumps. Dr Awuah called on the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) to ensure that every batch of sachet water is taken through quality control test.
Dr Awuah criticised the Board for the practice where after initial quality
control tests, the FDB does not carry out follow-up tests. She said since about
95 percent of the population in the metropolis patronise sachet and bottled
water due to the pollution of the water sources "the onerous is on the
producers to produce good quality water".
Patrick Adu-Gyamfi, Chairman of the Association, appealed to the Environmental
Sanitation Department of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and the FDB to
conduct regular inspection of production sites to flush out those whose
operations do not meet quality control standards. The Association, he said, has
set up a Quality Control Team to ensure that the proper thing is done.
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Ghana to completely phase out CFC use by 2010
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 15 August 2003 - Ghana will completely phase out the importation and utilisation of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), by the year 2010, as part of global measures to help save the ozone layer from further depletion.
Emmanuel Osae-Quansah, a Senior Programme Officer of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said the deadline set for Ghana was the outcome of the ratification of the Vienna Convention and Montreal Protocol in 1988 and 1989 respectively.
CFCs contain substances that easily deplete the ozone layer, and which are hazardous to the environment and human life. Osae-Quansah was speaking on the topic "Ozone Layer Depletion: Causes and Effects", at the opening session of a training workshop, organised by the EPA in collaboration with Platinum Impex Limited in Kumasi on Thursday.
The two-day workshop was designed to create awareness among the general public, especially air conditioning and refrigeration technicians and engineers about the need to shift from the use of CFCs to a more environmentally friendly technology.
It is being attended by about 200 participants made up of air-condition technicians and engineers, importers and retailers from the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions. Osae-Quansah asked dealers in air-conditioners and refrigerators to start using hydrocarbons instead of CFCs.
He warned that after 2010, no individual or group of persons would be permitted to import or use products containing CFCs. In an address read for him, S.K. Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, entreated Ghanaians to be more environmentally conscious and cease taking the environment for granted.
"The unpredictable rainfall pattern, the intense heat and various
changes associated with the climate, should be enough signal to us that it is
high time we attached importance to the proper maintenance and enhancement of
the environment", he said.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 August 2003 - This year's TELEFOOD project was launched on Thursday with a call on the public to donate into the TELEFOOD fund to achieve food security on the continent. The First Lady, Mrs Theresa Kufuor, making the call, said statistics have shown that about 800 million people particularly in Africa were chronically undernourished and every government was tasked to put in measures to half the number by 2015.
TELEFOOD is an annual public awareness and fund-raising campaign of broadcasts, concerts and other events dedicated to helping the hungry to help themselves.
Since its inception in 1997, the TELEFOOD special fund with a maximum budget of $10,000 was used to provide direct assistance to group of small-scale farmers, fishermen, herdsmen or rural poor of a particular village, community or local institutions and health centres to undertake food production and income generating activities.
Mrs Kufuor said ending hunger should be a global priority and challenged governments, civil society and the private sector to carry out their commitments and step up their efforts to eliminate it.
She said commitments and promises were starting points on the road to achieving a millennium free from hunger, adding, "policies, programmes, projects, resources and activities to achieve food security should be geared towards ensuring adequate, available, affordable, quality packaging and safety among other thigs".
She, therefore, stressed need for proper mechanism to measure the effectiveness of food security and restore efforts to combat the multiple causes of food insecurity and thereby restore basic human rights.
Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), Minister of Food and Agriculture, in a speech read for him by Eddie Akita, Minister of State in charge of Fisheries, pledged the Ministry's preparedness to assist to ensure the success of the initiative. He said Ghana like other African governments was committed to the long-term goal of implementing the food security and sustainable agriculture objectives.
"We in Ghana are committed to waging a sustainable campaign through broadcast and concert by calling on companies and individuals to generously contribute towards TELEFOOD funds." Major Quashigah said the figures of deaths attributed to malnutrition and food related diseases painted a gloomy picture of the food deficit situation in the developing world.
He urged African countries to double up their efforts and harness all energies to bring on board all bodies, organizations and individuals to make viable interventions in the form of small agricultural/agro-based projects to ensure food security.
Anatolio Ndong Mba, FAO Representative to Ghana, said since 1997, Ghana had benefited from the TELEFOOD fund in Brong Ahafo, Greater Accra, Eastern and the three Northern Regions. He said this year seven projects have already been approved for assistance and a further four were yet to be approved, adding, "a total of 70,000 dollars is expected to be spent on TELEFOOD projects in Ghana this year."
Edward Boakye-Agyeman, Deputy Managing Director of Agricultural Development
Bank, said the Bank would cooperate with the project to ensure its success and
to eradicate food deficiency completely from Ghana.
GRi…/
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