Consecrated religious in Ghana make time alongside their numerous other activities to help the wider community recognise the need to protect Creation, focusing especially on plastic pollution, which has become a major problem especially in suburban areas near cities.
Pollution is easily spotted in Donkorkrom, in the Eastern Region of Ghana, West Africa. Taking a leisure walk in Donkorkrom, from the doorstep through the streets to the markets, plastic bags can be seen lying on the ground.
Residents of Donkorkrom are frequently in the habit of drinking sachet water, and often as soon after consuming the water, the plastic is thrown anywhere on the ground. It is not unusual to see plastics littered on school or Church grounds, despite numerous pleas by priests and religious to take more care.
The indiscriminate dumping of plastics on the ground has serious effects on the environment. For instance, the rain collects the plastic from the ground and incorporates it into the land, which is often only discovered when one goes to plough the land for planting, and finds a dead land on which nothing can germinate as a result of plastic pollution.
Another problem with plastic pollution is that when the plastics get choked in the gutters, and it rains, the water is not able to move, resulting to spillage and floods, causing enhanced damage to the community.
Plastic pollution is not only detrimental to the soil but to animals as well, which are part of God’s Creation. Some of the plastics carried by the rain or floods hang on the grass, and if by any mistake any of the animals happen to swallow them, they die.
Consecrated religious have taken it upon themselves to sensitize the community on the need to protect the environment. They are doing this by engaging the community in talks and other activities on the subject, but mostly by their own lived realities. They undertake to take the lead so that others will follow.
Their goal is to continue to practice environmental care in their religious communities and parishes, so that when members of the local community visit their homes, they will see, become conscious, and follow suit.
The religious also believe that for this fight to be successful, there must be some kind of replacement to take care of the plastic pollution. In that light, they plan to produce shopping bags using fibre or material that can be disposed of, which they can consciously use for shopping instead of carrying numerous plastics from the shop, which only contributes to more pollution.
They believe that if the community sees them making this move, it will definitely effect a positive change in them, and they will become more conscious of preserving the earth.