ZOOMLION Ghana Limited, the country's waste management experts, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, has begun a mass mosquito spraying exercise in the Western Region, which would cover all the 17 districts.

The exercise, which began at Agona in the Ahanta West District on Tuesday, would last for 33 days, according to officials of the company. "This is part of a nationwide routine spraying exercise, which targets public toilets, urinal sites, container sites, refuse evacuated sites, drains and ditches, stagnant water, market places and finally, disposal sites, which we intend to spray to be able to control diseases and vectors," Mr. Felix Boankrah, Regional Operations Supervisor of ZoomLion noted.

According to the Supervisor, "This brings forth a new exercise dubbed Nationwide Mosquito Control Programme (NAMCOP)." As a result, he disclosed, 420 spraying gangs had been engaged by the company, trained in the Western Region specifically to undertake periodic spraying and laviciding of mosquito breeding sites, which have been surveyed and mapped out by the company, in collaboration with the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, and their respective Environmental Health officers in the region.

Mr. Boankrah further disclosed to the Western File that each of the districts in the region had already selected 20 spraying gangs to embark on the exercise. This, he noted, was to help stop the breeding of mosquitoes in the communities, which has resulted in the spread of malaria.

It would also help to achieve maximum control of mosquitoes and many other diseases, which he said had been causing vectors. Mr. Boankrah stressed that the company had also planned to improve on their activities in the region, by trying their possible best to be on top of the issue of sanitation, and would therefore not countenance laziness among the thousands of youth engaged by the company in the region.

He told the Western File that ZoomLion was only interested in working with competent hands to achieve results, and not people who would not comply with instructions by the management of the company in the region.

"We believe that our activities have helped to improve sanitation in the region, and that is not all, we have also tried to engage more hands, particularly the youth, to improve the situation of unemployment in the country, and therefore, anyone being engaged by the company ought to be working in the interest of ZoomLion, for us to ultimately achieve results together, but idling will not be tolerated," he warned.

To address the challenges at the district level, the Supervisor said that ZoomLion was establishing district offices across the length and breadth of the country, to improve on sanitation and to further create jobs.

"We are going to engage some Higher National Diploma Graduates to man the district offices in the region. We believe that we can still improve on our activities, therefore we are committed to this noble cause with the aim of helping the region, and this country to deal with the problem of sanitation," Mr. Boankrah added.

In the past, filth was one of the hazardous challenges confronting the Western Region, due to the activities of traders and market women at the various central business districts in the region.

It was also due to lack of education, and concrete steps to check insanitary practices and improve on the environment.

However, the situation has drastically improved, with the introduction of the sanitation programme by ZoomLion.

The company took several steps to desilt and open gutters, that were hitherto chocked by refuse, thereby preventing the free flow of water, the beautification programme for the Assemblies, and many other initiatives that the company has embarked on to improve the situation.

Apart from that, the company has also embarked on several education programmes to sensitise the communities on the essence of clean environments, pure hygienic practices and their benefits to communities.

The introduction of sanitation guards in the region, to further complement the efforts of the various district assemblies in getting communities to understand the dangers of indiscriminate disposal of waste, and the hazardous conditions under which many of them were living, has also paid off.

The issue of Malaria, which is now at the center of ZoomLion's programmes, has also been hammered on by officials of the company.

The sanitation guards also try to get communities to understand the troubles of improper waste management, and its consequences on their economic growth.