ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCAION PROJECT FOR SUNYANI (PAGE 40)

Story: Akwasi Ampratwum-Mensah, Sunyani

AN Environmental Education Project, jointly undertaken by the Malaspina University College in Canada, the Sunyani Campus of the Faculty of Forest Resource Technology (FFRT) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi and the Sunyani Polytechnic (S-Poly) in the Brong Ahafo Region, has started in the Sunyani Municipality.
The Project, being financed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) at 500,000 Canadian dollars, has five thematic areas, namely waste management, with special reference to plastics, HIV/AIDS awareness creation, bushfire/wildfire, management, eco-tourism development and village water project.
The major aim of the five-year project is to reduce poverty in four selected communities in the Sunyani Municipality, namely Sunyani Zongo, Abesim, Chiraa and Fiapre.
At a briefing on the project at the Sunyani Polytechnic, the Rector of the institution, Professor Kwasi Nsiah-Gyabaah, explained that the project was one of the efforts by the FFRT and the polytechnic to provide extension education to the local communities and fulfil their mission of providing service to society.
He stated that the real value of the polytechnic and the FFRT would be felt only when the institutions were able to assist the rural communities to overcome their challenges, which included the five mentioned thematic areas.          
For instance, Prof. Nsiah-Gyabaah said the Sunyani Municipality was faced with the problem of urban expansion and growing piles of garbage just like other cities in Ghana, and that its disposal was a real challenge, which should be solved at all costs.
He added that the forest-savanna transition zone was vulnerable to frequent annual bush burning.
The rector noted that a lot of progress had been made since the inception of the project, with the capacities of staff and students for research being developed, while those students were engaging in cultural exchanges with their counterparts from Canada.
Prof. Nsiah-Gyabaah pointed out that the project communities, the municipal assembly and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in the project were now feeling the impact of the two tertiary institutions in the region.
 The rector stressed that knowledge transfer was being facilitated through the co-operation of partner institutions, adding that as part of the project, students and staff exchange programmes had been planned.
He stated that some project staff from the polytechnic had already visited Canada, and that two groups of students and staff from Malaspina had also visited Ghana.