UESD Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Nyarko-Sampson Affirms Calls to Preserve the Environment

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development, UESD, Prof. Eric Nyarko-Sampson has bemoaned the alarming rate of  pollution of water bodies and its associated health implications. He has therefore added his voice to calls on the  water and sanitation industries to help protect water bodies in Ghana to avoid the total destruction of such a valuable resource.

Prof. Nyarko-Sampson was speaking as the Guest of Honour at the Zoomlion Foundation and partners award ceremony to fifty (50) Basic Schools (under the UESD Community Development Challenge programme ) to mark the 2023 World Water Day, on the theme: Accelerating Change. The programme was held in the Auditorium of the Multi-Purpose Building of the University.

The beneficiary schools included Adawso Presby JHS, Berekuso Presby B JHS, Natriku D.A R/C Basic School, Kobokobo R/C Basic School, Agormanya Methodist JHS, Anyaboni R/C Basic School, Senchi-Ferry Methodist JHS, St. Peter R/C JHS, Avedzi Basic School and Bornikope Community Basic School Complex.

In all,  ninety (90) handwashing containers, sixteen (16) tricycles, ninety (90) dustbins, and four (4) bottle-crushing compressor machinesvalued at two hundred and fifty thousand Euros were distributed to the schools.

Prof. Nyarko-Sampson said, it was important to accelerate a change of mindset and actions around the youth and citizenry on the need to conserve the environment. He called on organizations that operate within UESD’s mandate to partner with it in areas of data sharing, research, and other areas to help sustain the environment.

He commended Zoolion and its partners for putting together the awards package.

The guest speaker, the Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana, Ms. Krisztina Jaksi touched on the importance of water and the need for stakeholders to help protect water bodies from drying up. The Embassy of Hungary and Pureco Africa donated, ‘Pipe it up Board Games,’ to initiate water awareness campaigns within schools in ten 10 Municipalities of the country.

The Managing Director of Zoomlion, Mrs. Gloria Opoku Anti said, her organisation has sixteen (16) outlets dotted around the country which makes it easier to partner with any institution whose mandate falls within health, sanitation, and environmental sustainability. She stated that Zoomlion is most importantly committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and explained that Zoom Kids clubs in schools have been created with the aim of shaping the attitude of future leaders and focusing on raising awareness on sanitation issues among children and the youth in Ghana. It also aims to inculcate in the youth, best water practices.