EPA launches Green City Project

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a special exercise, the Green City Project, under which 2000 seedlings will be planted on a 50-acre land at Danfa in the Greater Accra Region.

The major element of the project transcends tree planting and includes energy saving and efficiency, water conservation and management and efficient waste management, leading to the zero waste concept among other things.

This was announced by the Chief Executive Director of the agency, Mr Daniel Amlalo, at the 2014 World Environment Day (WED) celebrated at Danfa last Thursday. 

The World Environment Day (WED) is a day set aside by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to sensitise the entire world to the importance of preserving the resources of the earth.

This year’s celebrations coincided with the EPA’s 40th anniversary. The global theme for celebration is “Raise your voice, not the sea level”. The Green City Project forms part of EPA’s anniversary celebrations.

Against this background, the EPA has adopted a localised theme on: “Greening our environment to save Ghana,” with the slogan, “Raise your voice, and grow a tree to green our environment”. 

According to Mr Amlalo, the localised theme, “Raise your voice, grow a tree to green our environment” is to instill the green city idea in every aspect of our lives. 

The Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei, stressed the importance of growing trees, saying “Trees as we know have a role to play in our daily lives. Apart from the global benefits of trees absorbing carbon dioxide, they also provide sun shades, windbreaks, reduce temperature of land surfaces, absorb heat and enhance humidity”. 

“That is why the ministry has for the past two years taken up initiatives to encourage tree planting in the country,” he stated. 

He said the ministry had collaborated with the Ghana Standards Board and the Ghana Education Service to encourage tree planting in schools and encourage everyone to take part in the Greening Ghana Project to protect the environment.

Mr Ebenezer Sampong, the Acting Deputy Executive Director for Technical Services at the EPA, also encouraged the public to adopt new attitudes to help protect the environment.