Mr Kobla Bechem, the Chief Executive Officer of YEA, said three problems had been identified within the growing coastal communities, which were the plastic waste phenomenon, the increasing growth of hyacinth in the Volta River and unemployment.

He said though the Module was a panacea to those problems, other innovative approaches were also being deployed, especially in relation to tackling the hyacinth in the Volta Lake. “Fiber glass boats will be procured for use by the youth to harvest the hyacinth to be turned into compost for fertiliser,” he stated.

Mr Bechem said 39 historical castles and forts had been identified along Ghana’s Atlantic coast and these would soon be upgraded into major tourists’ sites. Mrs Benita Sena Okity-Duah, a Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, reiterated the need for the coastal line to be clean to safeguard the health of local dwellers as well as to meet the international sanitary and health standards of the fishes exported.

She said Ghana was an exporter of more than $318,036,064 worth of fishes, therefore, it was critical to ensure that the source of the fishes were clean. Mr Baba Jamal, the Deputy Minister for Employment and Labor Relations, said the Coastal Sanitation Module was launched to help improve the country’s long coastal line of more than 500 kilometres.

He, therefore, tasked the beneficiaries of the Module to ensure that indiscriminate defaecation and pollution were immediately stopped. Madam Helen Ntoso, the Volta Regional Minister, said YEA had provided jobs to more than 6,900 youths in the Region and urged the youth to seize the opportunity given them to better their lots.