The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), for the Coastal Development Authority (CODA), Jerry Ahmed Shaib, has charged the coastal communities to actively support the Authority’s Clean Beach Campaign to make them world-class tourist destinations.
The authority since its establishment in 2018 has prioritized the development and improvement of sectors including education, health, water and sanitation, sports, and other relevant sectors with the goal to eradicate poverty and improve livelihood within coastal communities.
As part of CODA’s plan to improve water and sanitation issues in the coastal belts, the administration has since rolled out the CODA Clean Beach Campaign initiative across communities in the coastal belt.
During the Minister’s Press Briefing, the CEO for CODA said, having clean beaches like the rest of the world like that of the Bahamas and the Dominican Republics among others is not far from Ghana’s reach.
“There is an intervention that we are very passionate about that is the CODA Clean Beach Campaign. This intervention seeks to mobilize coastal communities to be involved in environmental cleanliness and provide basic infrastructure and facilities to maintain clean beaches with linkages for value addition in partnerships Coastal Conservancy Organization (CCO).
Currently, pilot plastic litter trapping has be installed in the Korle Lagoon to trap and contain floating plastic being carried into the sea. I’ve had people giving me calls on how I was going to run this. Anyone who has had the opportunity to go to the Bahamas and the likes know the only difference with our beaches is the cleaning. It is not far from us and if this can be done in Bahamas, we can do that with our beaches. This is the passion for CODA,” he said.
He aslo appealed to the media to actively spread the education among coastal folk establishing that, the results would improve the living standards of the people as well as improve the tourism sector.
“We really need the education and the education comes from the media. We can ensure our beaches are very clean and rid of flirt and squalor when the media takes this up together with CODA and all other partners,” he stressed.
The Coastal Development Authority was established in January 2018 by the President of the Republic, Akuffo-Addo under the Coastal Development Authority Act, 2017 (ACT 961). The development zones include 109 constituencies from six regions including the Western Region, Western North Region, Central Region, Greater Accra Region, Volta Region, and the Oti Region.
