INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR OZONE LAYER PRESERVATION HELD IN HO

The 25^th ozone layer day was held in ho yesterday 19^th September 2012 to create awareness among the public on the dangers of depleting the ozone layer through the continuous emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere.

The theme for this year’s celebration was “the atmosphere my legacy, their heritage-our collaborative responsibility to protect”.

Among the dignitaries present were the volta regional minister; Hon Ford Camel, the deputy minister for the ministry of environment science and technology; Hon Mustapher Amed,Dr.Jerimias Blazer;deputy country’s director programs for UNDP,the executive director of EPA;Mr Daniel Amlalo,And Torgbui Akliku Ahorney;the volta regional co-ordinator for EPA. An occasion chaired by Mama Agblatsu(iii) had people from all walks of lives attending; school children from  basic to tertiary institutions and security services were not left out.

The event was in two phases, an earlier lecture and quiz competion among four second cycle schools that had asafoatse obinkyere as the quiz master and a durbar held on ola campus.  The participating schools were Mawuli Shs,Keta Shs, Mawuko Girls And Bishop Herman Colledge with Keta Shs emerging winners of the bout. The knowledge of the students was tested on the environments, its protection and preservation.

In his statement, the acting executive director of the environmental protection agency said as a result of continuous emission of certain man made chemicals into the atmosphere, the protective cover in controlling the harmful ultraviolent radiations are being depleted. And it is in the awake of this that a global intervention has been arrived at through the implementation of the Montreal protocol in 1996. With this, developed countries who are party to the protocol stopped the production and use of the most predominant ozone depleting substances .Ghana who among other developing countries that uses these substances has been given a phase-out date in 2010 to strategize means of implementing the regulations of the protocol. Since then Ghana has been involved in her task by creating awareness among the public, training technicians and engineers in the code of good refrigeration practices and rendering financial packages to owners of CFC based cold storage facilities to convert to ozone friendly alternatives. He however added saying with the massive support from the government and the heartening responds from the general pubic, Ghana is thriving well in the protection and preservation of the ozone layer.

Dr Jeremias Blazer in his speech applauded the governments for their unrelenting involvement to the call for the protection and preservation of the environment. He further pleaded with the government to maintain its commitments to finish the job of eradicating cfcs.

Hon Mustapher Amed the deputy minister for ministry of environment science and technology said government is doing all it can to make the needed transition from ozone depleting substances into ozone friendly substances a successful one. He further added that with the enactment of the legislative instrument, LI 18, the EPA has been empowered to prevent the importation of ozone depleting substances into the country. The minister reminded the people of the pending cholera outbreak and asked them to join hands with the president’s campaign on sanitation which he recently launched.

EPA from the 1^st of January 2013 would ban the importation of ozone depleting substances into the country and concurrently the energy commission on that day would also launch a voluntary refrigerator turn-in and rebate system project which seeks to mop-up old energy inefficient refrigerators and freezers from end users and replace them with new energy efficient ones through a voucher rebate system. Officials from the custom’s division of Ghana revenue authority are being empowered through numerous training programs to enable them step up their monitoring roles in tracking illegal importation of ozone depleting substances.  

The event was climax with wonderful poetry recitals and sketches from students on the importance of preserving the ozone layer.