Zoomlion, Standard Bank support first CDM project in Ghana

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

Zoomlion Ghana Limited and Standard Bank have submitted documentation for the registration of the first Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project in Ghana.
The CDM is a waste treatment project, which is expected to be completed before the end of 2011, and is the first state of the art composting and recycling plant to be built in Ghana.
Known as the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant, it is expected to provide integrated processing and management of solid and liquid waste, including domestic waste, hospital waste, industrial waste and e-waste.
Announcing this in a statement yesterday November 25, 2011, Zoomlion disclosed that when completed, the plant will be run on an eight-hour shift and will be able to process 300 tonnes of waste daily.
The plant is also expected to produce organic fertiliser that will be used for agricultural and horticultural purposes and recover metals and plastics for recycling.
Explaining what informed the project, the two collaborators said “Growing urbanisation in Ghana has led to an increasing number of landfill dump sites, which is both unsustainable and raises serious health concerns in the country. The waste treatment plant, and any further plants that are developed, will eventually eliminate the need for landfill dump sites in the country.”
According to the statement, the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant will generate carbon credits, which Standard Bank has agreed to off-take.
Commenting on the project,  Muyi Kazim, of the carbon trading team at Standard Bank Group said; “We are committed to working with companies across Africa and beyond on CDM projects. We have worked closely with Zoomlion, Stanbic Bank, and Ecosure, the consultants, to assist in the registration of the waste management project, which is a landmark of CDM projects in Ghana.
For his part, Mr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, the CEO of Zoomlion said; “Scarcity of land coupled with environmental challenges for disposal sites in Ghana have made it imperative for a more sustainable and environmentally acceptable means of managing waste to be found.”
“The Accra Compost and Recycling Plant will combat this problem and create products that can be re-used by businesses and the community, whilst also creating thousands of jobs in and around Accra,” he added.

African governments signing away water rights for decades

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

A paper published today, November 24, 2011 by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), warns that African governments are signing away water rights for decades, with insufficient regard for how this will affect millions of local users, including fishing, farming and pastoralist communities.
Specifically, IIED’s researchers caution that governments risk signing away water rights in ways that harm the future prospects of their citizens, especially fishermen and pastoralists, who rely on the same water as the investors.
According to the paper, the water rights often feature in the growing number of large land deals that governments are signing with investors, as many of these areas require irrigation to be viable.
Such deals have already raised concerns for being rushed, secretive and one-sided, while many fail to deliver real benefits and can even create new social and environmental problems, a statement announcing the IIED paper says.
Giving specifics, the paper reveals that some investors in Mali and Sudan have been given unrestricted access to as much water as they need.
It states further that although the Gibe III dam in Ethiopia will enable irrigation on 150,000 of land the Ethiopian government has allocated to investors, studies suggest this project would lower the level of Kenya’s Lake Turkana – on which half a million Kenyans depend, by eight metres by 2024.
According to Lorenzo Cotul, co-author of the paper, “Companies that acquire land for irrigated farming will want secure water rights, but long-term contractual commitments can jeopardise water access for local farmers.”
He says “This affects not only the people who have customarily used the land that is being leased, but also distant downstream users who can be hundreds of kilometres away and even across an international border.”
To Jamie Skinner, the paper’s lead author and a principal researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development however, “The ‘global water crisis’ is a crisis of water management, not of water quantity,” and that “Good water management in the face of climate change is only possible if it is clear who the water belongs to, who holds rights to its use and when allocations to all users  are made in a transparent way.”

World at risk from ozone depletion by new fridges, air conditioners, unless...

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

A modern refrigerator

The world now stands at risk of further depleting the ozone layer through the use of new fridges, air conditioners, fire-fighting equipment, insulation foams and others, as it still struggles with its fight against climate change.

This is because, the chemicals, collectively known as Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are becoming popular as replacements for the older group – Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) phased-out to protect the ozone layer - the earth’s high flying shield that filters out dangerous levels of the sun’s ultra violet rays, have also been found to be powerful greenhouse gases.

A report launched Monday, November 21, 2011 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), projects that by year 2050 HFCs could be responsible for emissions equivalent to 3.5 to 8.8 Gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide (Gt CO₂eq), which is comparable to total current annual emissions from transport, estimated at around 6-7 Gt annually.

Commenting on the new report’s finding, Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said although the more than 20 year-old international effort to save the ozone layer ranks among the most successful examples of cooperation and collaboration among nations with the phasing out globally in 2010 of the original chemicals known as CFCs, there appears to be a new challenge.

“A new challenge is rapidly emerging as countries move ahead on HCFCs and that is HFCs. While these ‘replacements for the replacement’ chemicals cause near zero damage to the ozone layer, they are powerful greenhouse gases in their own right,” he said.

Achim Steiner however said “The good news is that alternatives exist alongside technological solutions according to this international study, and while assessing the absolute benefits from switching needs further scientific refinement, there is enough compelling evidence to begin moving away from the most powerful HFCs today.”

The new report—HFCs: A Critical Link in Protecting Climate and the Ozone Layer, is the first of three reports to be launched this week in Bali, Indonesia, at the 23^rd Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol by UNEP, in the run up to the UN Climate Convention meeting in Durban, South Africa.

A range of alternatives recommended by the report that could ensure that the impact of HFCs remains small and equal to today’s impacts, include  alternative methods and processes, which range from improved building design that reduces or avoids the need for air conditioners to fibre, rather than foam insulation materials.

It also suggests the use of Non-HFC substances, stating that there are already commercially available alternatives that range from ammonia to dimethyl ether for use in foams, refrigeration and fire protection systems.

Other ways of combating the developing phenomenon, the report says, is by using climate-friendly HFCs, adding, “some HFCs have shorter life-times in the atmosphere of months rather than years. Some of these are being introduced such as HFC 1234ze in foams and HFC-1234yf for mobile air-conditioners.”

The report points out too, that with further technical developments backed by standards, investment incentives and training for technicians and workers, the introduction of alternatives to climate-damaging HFCs could be accelerated and fast-tracked.

UNEP’s new report states though, that the contribution of HFCs to climate forcing is currently less than one per cent of all greenhouse gases.

It however warns that the levels of HFCs are rising as they replace HCFCs such as HFC 134a, the most popular type, which has increased in the atmosphere by about 10 per cent per year since 2006.

Though phased out, used old CFC fridges are still common in Ghana

Further, the report projects the consumption of HFCs to exceed the peak consumption levels in the 1980s of the old, now fully phased-out CFCs, due to rising demand in emerging economies and a global population now above seven billion.

According to the UNEP study, although the phase-out and phase-down of CFCs and HCFCs since the late 1980s has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by around 8 Gt C0₂eq annually and reduced damage to the ozone layer,  without action, the increasing use of HFCs could add annual greenhouse gas emissions of between 3.5 and 8.8 Gt C0₂ eq by 2050, and thus undo the large climate benefits scored by the phase out of CFCs and HCFCs since the late 1980s.

HFCs are, along with CO₂, methane and other gases, controlled under the UN’s Framework Convention for Combating Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, while  measures to protect the ozone layer are carried out under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

UNEP’s Executive Director thus opines; “Cooperative action between these treaties may be the key to fast action on HFCs, assisting to maintain momentum on recovering the ozone layer while simultaneously reducing risks of accelerated climate change.”

The second report, Bridging the Gap: An Assessment, which outlines the gap between the commitments and pledges of countries versus where emissions need to be by around 2020 in order to keep a global temperature rise under 2 Degrees Celsius was launched on 23 November 23, 2011, in London, in collaboration with international climate modelling centres.

A report that outlines a package of 16 measures which could reduce global warming, avoid millions of premature deaths and reduce global crop yield losses by tackling black carbon, methane and ground-level ozone - substances known as short-term climate forcers, will also be launched on Friday November 25, 2011 by UNEP in collaboration with researchers.

Local communities in West Africa to get more benefits from dams

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

A section of Ghana's Akosombo Dam

A study into how large dams in West Africa have affected local people has identified ways to share the benefits of future dams more equitably and create development opportunities for communities.

The study, published Wednesday November 23, 2011 by the Global Water Initiative, which is supported by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, shows that large dams could bring greater benefits to local populations.

According to the study, people’s reasons for dissatisfaction include insufficient and poorly planned compensation for losses suffered as a result of the dam’s construction and later impacts, as well as difficulties in taking advantage of the benefits the dams offered – such as a lack of programmes that enabled communities to take advantage of the new potential for fishing, or having access to the electricity generated.

The study also unearthed an absence of clear and agreed rules for resource management or a clash between national laws and local customary practices, and especially who has what rights to what land.

To these challenges, the study identified five approaches that can overcome them, such as the involvement of local people in the benefits the dam creates and in all decisions about its construction, investment, compensation, relocations, etc.

It also recommends replacement of compensation policies that reproduce previous living conditions with ones that enable local people to adapt to the changes the dam will bring, and to benefit from them and development of local production systems, by ensuring access to land and resources in ways that are compatible with both national law and customary practices.

According to the study, the establishment also, of  local regulations in agreement with local stakeholders to enable fair and sustainable use of resources and the support of local people’s access to the dam’s benefits by establishing preferential local access to benefits such as irrigation and electricity and by creating a local development fund that is financed by the dam’s economic activity, are approaches that can give dam communities more leverage.

Commenting on the findings of the study, Aliou Faye of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which collaborated with the Global Water Initiative said “When countries build large dams, the goal of national development has often overridden the potential for local or regional development — and local people are often left dissatisfied.”

For his part, Jamie Skinner, a principal researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development and co-author of the report added: “Efforts to ensure that local communities benefit need not clash with national development objectives, nor do they need to be very expensive, saying, “Developers need to work with local people, and not see them mainly as an obstacle to national progress.”

To conduct the study, the Global Water Initiative (GWI), in collaboration with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), analysed the impacts of six large dams built in the late 1970s and late 1990s in Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso, and held stakeholder workshops in each country to discuss their findings.

The study focused on the Niandouba and Confluent dams in Senegal, the Sélingué dam in Mali, and the Bagré, Kompienga and Moussodougou dams in Burkina Faso.

Global Water Initiative (GWI), supported by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, addresses the challenge of providing long term access to clean water and sanitation, as well as protecting and managing ecosystem services and watersheds, for the poorest and most vulnerable people dependant on those services.

The Regional GWI consortium for West Africa includes the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN); Catholic Relief Services (CRS); CARE International; SOS Sahel (UK); and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

Meanwhile, in October 2011 the Niger Basin Authority adopted a social and environmental Annex to the Water Charter that lays the foundations for improved social and environmental planning in the vast  basin of this 4,180 km river that flows through nine countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria).

It obliges states to assess environmental impacts, consult local people, and adopt progressive tools, such as formal written agreement from people displaced by dams, in a bid to improve social and environmental outcomes.

Waste management in Ghana gets major boost

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

A line up of part of the 700 waste trucks

Waste management in Ghana received a major shot Monday, when Zoomlion, a well known name in Ghana’s waste management industry, in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) unveiled 700 new waste trucks and other machinery.

The fleet of trucks estimated to cost millions of Ghana Cedis, will aid the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), as well as private waste management contractors and individuals to carry out their operations.

Adding to this, another set of trucks at the cost of US$11million sourced from the Exim Bank of India is expected to be distributed to 21 MMDAs by the close of December this year.                                                                     

Stating the rationale for the collaboration, the initiators said it is to enable the MMDAs deliver higher quality waste management services in their respective areas and intended to provide a logistical resource base, which other private waste management operators can fall on to beef up their equipment holdings and enhance their operational capacities.

Furthermore, the move is intended to incorporate unorthodox waste pre-collectors (truck pushers) into mainstream operation, by helping them to acquire affordable and appropriate waste collection equipment on very flexible terms.

Ghana currently generates beyond 11,000 tons of waste per day and the introduction of the 700 new trucks and other equipment is expected to further change the face of the waste management industry significantly.

Unveiling the new trucks, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, commended Zoomlion for the role it played in securing the new trucks for the MMDAs.

He encouraged all truck pushers to get rid of the unorthodox way of collecting waste and get on board with the new scheme to enhance their operations.

To ensure an environment devoid of filth during the Christmas festivities, Mr. Ampofo called for a national clean-up exercise in the month of December for which a date is yet to be fixed.

The Minister said his outfit would soon come out with a programme to recognise best institutions and individuals championing the cause of environmental cleanliness in the country.

“The award is aimed at bringing competition into the system,” noted Mr. Ampofo.

Commenting on the new trucks, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Joseph Siaw Agyapong, lauded the efforts of all players in the waste management industry for their role played in the fight against the country’s waste and environmental sanitation problems.

He noted however, that despite the gains achieved, “there is still a shortfall in the collection rate, as a significant portion of waste generated in Accra on daily basis is left uncollected.” Mr. Agyapong therefore called for all hands to be on deck towards ensuring a cleaner environment.

“The time has come for all stakeholders of the sanitation sector, in whatever capacity we find ourselves – policy makers, researchers, operations among many others to face our problems head on and strive to pull the nation out of the doldrums for better life and accelerated development,” he added.

Speaking on behalf of the MMDAs, the Mayor of Accra, Dr. Alfred Okoh Vanderpuiye, expressed his profound gratitude to the MLGRD and Zoomlion Ghana Limited, for their leadership role in addressing the challenges confronting the MMDAs.

“I have always looked forward to the day when the MMDAs will be resourced to enable them carry out their activities effectively. We will rise up to the effective use of the equipment given us to ensure that our environment becomes the best,” Mr. Vanderpuiye said.

He emphasised the need for the MMDAs to register all residences within their jurisdiction to enable them work effectively. “If we fail, the intent of the equipment will not be realised,” he added.

Ghana government urged to ignore mining companies’ complaints over new tax hikes

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE
The National Coalition on Mining (NCOM), has urged the Government of Ghana to ignore complaints from mining companies operating in Ghana, following the new fiscal regime introduced into the sector.
In a statement issued on the 2012 budget read by Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor last week, the Coalition, a grouping of communities affected by mining, NGOs and individuals engaged in mining sector advocacy, called on the government to ignore complaints from mining companies about the new initiatives, and rather proceed with the immediate implementation of the new taxes and the critical review of the fiscal regime and mining agreements.
“The upward adjustment and an overhaul of the fiscal regime constitute a set of actions that ensure that the country improves upon its share of benefits from mining sector,” they opined.
NCOM further charged that Ghana and Africa as a whole cannot continue forever with investment relations in which: mining production remains an enclave with no linkages and local value-addition, private mining companies pay land rent of GH¢0.50 per km2 per annum, stability agreements lock government royalty receipts to only 3%, the environmental and social cost of mining is externalised to the public and communities, and human rights violations, especially of communities in mining areas occur with impunity.
Praising government for the step it has taken in the mining sector, the Coalition said the steps are part of a set of actions that are urgently needed to improve the contribution of the sector to the economy and people of Ghana.
In the 2012 Budget Statement and Economic Policy presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor on Wednesday November 16th, 2011, government sought to increase corporate tax rate from 25 per cent to 35 per cent; impose a windfall profit tax of 10 per cent, and implement a uniform regime for capital allowance of 20 per cent for five years for mining companies.
The budget also noted the government’s intention to review the principle of ring-fencing as applicable to the Natural Resources Sector in 2012, to prevent companies undertaking a series of projects from deducting costs from new projects against profitable ventures yielding taxable income.
In the view of the Coalition, the complaints from the mining company “are simply a smokescreen to cover the super profits the industry has enjoyed under the long years of liberalised mining regimes in Ghana and Africa as a whole,” and “a subtle threat to any further reforms to increase or introduce additional taxes to raise revenue and improve the developmental impact of mining in Ghana.”
The Coalition argued that the Africa wide liberalisation of mining codes since the 1980s that triggered a boom in large scale foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa’s mining sectors is long gone.
“The boom in FDI was an immediate result of generous incentives offered by the liberalised mining regimes sponsored by the World Bank Group and other bilateral donors. These regimes were primarily designed to attract FDI and the key instruments used included the provision of large percentage (up to 80%) of capital allowances, exemption of custom and excise duties on mining equipment, guaranteed offshore retention of earnings, carry forward of losses for a period not less than five years, removal of windfall taxes, and rights of discretion among others,” they said.
Stating that today, such incentives only serve the interest of mining companies, NCOM stressed that the high price of gold has even triggered calls on the government of Ghana from traditional architects of the liberalised mining regimes – the World Bank and the IMF to raise certain taxes in order to generate more benefits from the mineral wealth of the country.
Further advancing their argument for government to go ahead with fiscal reforms in the mining sector, the Coalition said although there were few transnational mining companies operating in Ghana before the reforms in the 1980s,  Ghana had registered more than two hundred (200) mining companies holding various exploration and production concessions as at the beginning of 2009.
“The number of transnational mining companies operating in the mining sector requires a shift of state policy from simply attracting FDI to optimising the benefits of FDI to the national economy,” they underscored.
Listing other African countries where tax regimes have been changed, NCOM said “When the world price of copper increased by nearly 400% between 2000 and 2007 the government of Zambia increased taxes in order to raise its share of mining revenue in the face of similar hostility and threat from the mining companies.
“The Republic of Guinea recently passed a new mining code in which taxes and state equity were raised to optimise government revenue. In Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo the surge in mineral prices have sharpened and widened public debates about the costs and benefits of mining.
“At the African Union level as well as ECOWAS and SADC, governments and inter-governmental agencies like the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa have lined up alongside civil society organisations (CSOs) in seeking a revision of existing mining contracts as well as of the codes under which they were granted.”

Ghana’s commitment to sanitation waning, despite being off-track

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

A female public toilet in Ghana

Available statistics indicate that Ghana’s commitment to the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, especially sanitation, is still very low, in spite of the common knowledge that the country has and is still performing abysmally in terms of coverage for its people.
There seems to be no let-up in Government’s very low commitment to the sector, and in fact it is rather spiraling downwards, while investment has also been very poor.
Alluding to this in Accra Friday, November 18, 2011, Mr. Ibrahim Musah, Head of Policy and Partnership, WaterAid in Ghana, said  “in 2008, Ghana as a percentage of GDP, allocated 0.38%, in 2010 it fell to 0.28%, so even as we talk about the crisis in water, especially in sanitation, allocation to WASH is dwindling and this is not a good sign for progress in WASH in Ghana.”
“More frightening is the case that if you take government investment, figures from Ghana in 2010 reveal that 78% to Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing is coming from donors, and only 35% to Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is coming from the donors and this is not acceptable.”
Mr. Ibrahim Musah, who was presenting an overview of a global report by WaterAid, an international NGO, charged government to invest in the sector, stating, “interestingly if you take education, within the same period 35% of donors’ money went to education and 5% went to health, indicating much of the resources to health and education is coming from government.”
He questioned why government could not pay for the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector and thereby improve livelihoods and school enrolment among others, saying the report, which was being launched, aimed to bring attention to such inequities.
WaterAid in Ghana’s Head of Policy and Partnership stated further that even from the donors’ perspective, the least developed countries are not getting the required funding as compared to the middle income countries and so the report – “Off-track Off-target” calls on donors to ensure proper targeting of aid.
He urged that after such aid has been received, governments must endeavour to focus first on the marginalised and excluded in their countries.
Shifting his attention to what the report holds for Ghana, he urged government and all WASH sector players to ensure that government’s allocation to WASH is improved. Mr. Musah made reference to the eThekwini declaration, where the Ghana government signed and made a commitment in 2008, to allocate 0.5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to sanitation.
He continued that when Ghana attended the African Sanitation Conference (AfricaSan) in Kigali, Rwanda this year, government was only allocating about 0.2%, which is not good.
Ibrahim Musah also reminded government of its commitment in the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Compact, to commit a total of US$ 350 million to the WASH sector yearly and the need to make that pledge good and sustained till 2015.
Responding to the concerns of low commitment as expressed by WaterAid in Ghana’s Policy and Partnership Head, Chairman for the launch, Mr. Lenason Naa Demedeme, Director, Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate, acceded that indeed Ghana has a lot of frameworks for the sector, which other countries borrow from and are able to do exploits but the challenge for the country was the very little allocation always made by the Ministry of Finance, despite the many tangible arguments they always advance.
“We will continue to advocate, we will always urge civil society organisations to advocate using the many platforms available to bring about change in the sector,” he said.