*Ghana Cannot Afford to Remain Silent on Waste Crisis - Media Urged to Lead Advocacy for Reform*

The Parliamentary Press Corps has been urged to elevate reporting on waste management beyond disaster coverage and focus on the policy, economic and institutional failures that fuel Ghana's sanitation challenges.

Speaking at a capacity building workshop for journalists covering Parliament, Madam Betty Brown Nyadu

Group Head for Government Relations, Environment and Sanitation Processing Cluster

Jospong Group of Companies

 appealed to the media to help drive national action on what he described as a public health, economic, climate, infrastructure and governance issue.

"Ghana needs the media to report on waste management more than ever before. Not only when our drains are choked, not only when floods have destroyed homes and businesses, not only when refuse is accumulated on our streets," she said.

She noted that journalists occupy a unique position in Ghana's democracy as they do not merely report events but influence public understanding, shape national conversations, hold institutions accountable and determine which issues receive attention.

Madam Nyadu urged journalists to interrogate the policies, financial arrangements, institutional responsibilities and investment decisions that determine whether Ghana can manage its waste sustainably.

"By the time waste management becomes a headline about a disaster, the underlying problem may have existed for many years and by the time the consequences become visible, the cost of addressing them may already be significantly very high," she warned.

She explained that poor waste management goes beyond visible refuse, as choked drains contribute to flooding which damages homes, markets and public infrastructure, while contaminated water sources, degraded land and open burning contribute to disease and air pollution.

 Uncontrolled decomposition of organic waste at dumpsites also releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

On the economic impact, she said businesses lose productive hours when flooding disrupts transport, government spends scarce resources on emergency responses that could have been prevented, and the country loses valuable materials that could have been recovered and recycled for productive use.

Madam Betty Brown Nyadu called on Parliament to act decisively, stressing that waste management is ultimately a national development issue that requires legislative attention and sustained media advocacy.

Report filed by PKB