Director of Communication and Corporate Affairs at waste management giant Zoomlion, Emma Adwoa Appiah Osei-Duah, has urged the public to take personal responsibility for waste management to prevent flooding during the rainy season.

Madam Osei-Duah emphasised the importance of proper waste management in households, stating that many people fail to invest in receptacles because they have not internalised the value of properly managing waste.

Speaking on the JoyNews' AM show, she stated that “people have not placed value on waste, and for that matter, 'I do not see why I should spend money to get a receptacle to manage my waste’. It is on us as individuals to get a receptacle to manage our waste because each individual generates about 0.74 kg of waste every day, and if you are abandoning yours and I am abandoning mine.

“It becomes the problem of everybody, and if we all decide that we will not take care of it, then it gets to be the choker for the runoff, and then it flows over, and if you are not blessed with a good place, then the water finds its way into places you do not want it to find its way, but water would definitely find its way.”

She noted that as the rainy season approaches, Zoomlion is ramping up its efforts to educate Ghanaians about the importance of proper solid waste management to prevent flooding.

The Director of Communication and Corporate Affairs emphasised the crucial role of citizen awareness and behaviour change in reducing the impact of solid waste on flooding.

“Today, I went into a place and saw that beautiful buildings were raised in valleys, and so I asked the guy I was with if one day they decided to breach these two hills, what is going to happen to those houses?

“It is the attitude. ‘Once, I have a piece of land I am building. I do not care what is happening’, so we need to share with people to remind ourselves of the fact that we should check our attitude and make sure that we are doing the right thing to help the environment and keep us safe,” she noted.