Rubbish, litter should be everyone’s concern

 By BONNY KOKE

RUBBISH pollution and litter should be everyone’s concern and Waigani Primary School is no exception, deputy principal Warema Toso’o said during a workshop by the National Capital District waste management division at the school last Friday.

“We are part of the city and so we will work in cooperation with the division to see that this project becomes fruitful,” Toso’o said.

The comments made during the presentation of the “3R Heart Eco School Project” where the division’s staff members were training teachers to practise reduction of wastes, reuse and recycling.

According to presenter Delly Morofa, the aim of the project was to train teachers to understand the 3Rs, be advocates for 3R and help students implement the concept.

“We have worked with teachers to develop action plans that can be used in classrooms to educate students through activities and lessons to understand and implement the 3R,” Morofa said.

This project is geared to help control the amount of waste produced and how people can manage it, the manager of the division Joshua Sam said.

“We are trying to reduce waste at an upstream level. That is to do with the human behaviour and how they produce and manage waste,” Sam said.

There are eight high schools, secondary schools and primary schools selected to pilot the project.

The workshop will move on to other schools, Sam said. 

“Our target audience is the students and we will be educating them to become a generation of waste-conscious citizens,” he said.  

Some schools included  for workshops are Waigani Primary, Gerehu Secondary, Coronation Primary and Jubilee Secondary.

Waigani Primary School principal Sam Puwa commended the project and highlighted their lack knowledge about waste management.

“We now know how to manage our wastes, we normally used to burn everything in the incinerator but now we can separate the rubbish to reduce it,” Puwa said.

The aim of the project is to set up a proper waste management system in schools and educate people through the students to be responsible for their wastes.