Zoomlion to undertake mass spraying exercise

ZOOMLION Ghana Limited, a waste management company, will begin a mass mosquito spraying exercise of parts of the Accra metropolis by the end of this month as part of a nation-wide mosquito control programme.
The exercise, which is scheduled to start from the Ledzokuku Krowor Municipality is part of efforts to reduce malaria in the country.
The General Manager of Zoomlion, Mrs Florence Larbi, who made this known to the Daily Graphic during the opening of a one-week training programme for trainers in Accra, said a baseline survey would start next Thursday.
The survey is to study the scope of work and how it can be sustained once the exercise kicks off.
A total of 70 recruits drawn from the 10 regions of the country will take part in the programme. They include 10 vector control officers, 10 assistant pest control officers and 50 sprayers.
Other resource persons such as a Business Development Manager with Valant Biosciences with the United States of America as well as the Chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Nation-wide Mosquito Control Programme, Dr Kofi Ahmed will take part in the training programme.
The one week training is to introduce participants to the management of the new World Health Organisation (WHO) certified mosquito spraying chemicals and also on the effective usage of the newly acquired spraying machines, indoor residual machines and foggers.
Mrs Larbi told the Daily Graphic that the company had already committed more than 2,000 spraying machines already in the country with 3,000 more to be delivered for the exercise.
Further, Mrs Larbi said the company had also purchased 1,000 indoor residual machines and 40 foggers.
She said the programme was being undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, during which 5000 unemployed were expected to be engaged.
Asked how the company intended to sustain the programme in view of the country’s environmental challenges, Mrs Larbi said Zoomlion was intensifying public education campaigns especially through music to reverse the negative sanitation practices such as dumping solid waste into drains.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kumbour expressed the readiness of government to fully support the exercise adding that “one objective of the government is to ensure that filth and waste are removed from our homes”.
He stated that in 2006 alone, the country spent US$760 million on malaria cases alone adding that for that reason government had made the control of malaria one of its cornerstone in health care delivery.
The acting Deputy Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr Joseph Edmund cautioned the trainers against carelessness stressing that although the chemicals had been certified, it could still cause health hazards if not handled properly.
He announced that a previous residual chemical, DDT had been banned and added that safer chemicals were now being used to minimise the health risks.
The Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Nii Nortey Duah called for regular mass spraying exercises adding that the current situation at the municipality with regards to mosquitoes was unbearable and consequently commended Zoomlion for the initiative.