Mr Isaac Ashai Odamtten, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tema East Constituency, has urged stakeholders, including government, to work together to safeguard the sea and clear it of plastic waste.
“If we do not stop the increasing deposit of plastics in the ocean, the plastic stock in the ocean will be greater than the fish stock in the next 30 years,” he said.
Mr Odamtten stated in an interview as part of the media platform “Blue Gold: Ghana’s Economic Transformer,” initiated by the Ghana News Agency to serve as a holistic journalistic engagement with players and other stakeholders in the blue economy space.
The platform was to further the discussion on the blue economy and act as a vehicle for players in that space to engage the media in projecting what was happening in the industry.
The initiative also connected investors to the blue economy value chain, investigated undiscovered prospects in the field, and supported policymakers in comprehending the issues that blue economy actors face.
Speaking on the 2023 World Ocean Day, which was celebrated on June 8th, the Tema East MP emphasised the importance of addressing the difficulties that the oceans were experiencing and working together to conserve them.
The global theme for World Ocean Day 2023 was “The Planet Ocean’s Changing Tide”.
The Tema East MP stated that if nothing was done, aquatic life would be lost because of indiscriminate human activity on land, particularly the discharge of plastic waste.
Mr Odamtten, a former Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) Chief Executive, raised alarm over some indiscriminate actions near the Sakumo Lagoon, where plastic waste and other items were dumped.
He stated that when it rained, the majority of the materials were washed into the sea, causing the seabeds to rise and, as a result, harming the coastline, notably at Dade Agbo through to Bankoma in Tema New Town.
He encouraged the Tema Municipal Assembly and the Tema West Municipal Assembly to work together to zealously guard the Sakumo Lagoon and protect the embankment from encroachment.
“If care was not taken, flood-prone areas may have worsened conditions since the lagoon’s basin was filled,” he said.
He urged governmental actors, notably assemblies, to care about the environment and conserve it for the Metropolis’ sustenance.
He also advocated the preservation of the ocean for future generations, noting that it was home to essential species and ecosystems on which humans rely for nourishment.
He stated that plastics from land-based sources posed a large and growing threat to the oceans as a result of some indiscriminate human actions, such as the dumping of rubbish and plastic items into the sea.
GNA
