By Edmund Smith-Asante, ACCRA
A project
to transform waste treatment systems in the country into self-supporting
production facilities has taken off.
The
ultimate goal of the project is to improve public health and environmental
integrity in urban and peri-urban Ghana, by reducing the incidence of
water-borne diseases and mitigating water pollution.
The Design
for Re-use project was started in January 2011, through the support of the
African Water Facility and African Development Bank, with the Water Resources
Commission (WRC), as the executing agency.
The key
implementer of the project is the International Water Management Institute
(IWMI) and TREND, an NGO, in charge of the training component.
Reason for project
Speaking
at a National Level Learning Alliance Platform (NLLAP) last Thursday on the
project, a researcher at the IWMI, Dr Philip Amoah, said many of the country’s
treatment plants had broken down because of the lack of funds to maintain them
hence the need to recoup some funds to maintain them.
The
profitable wastes that the project seeks to publicise are treated waste water for irrigation
or aqua culture, compost for organic manure to fertilise crops and biogas for
cooking and generating power.
Later in
an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Amoah explained that close to 90 per
cent or more of the treatment plants in the country, were not functioning, and
the very simple reason was that the commission did not have money for operation
and maintenance.
“The
thinking that many people have is that waste is waste and it has to be thrown
away, but then the new thinking is that waste should not be considered as just
waste but something that can generate revenue and also be used profitably,” he
said.
Pilot project
Dr Amoah
said as part of the project, a waste treatment plant was rehabilitated at the
Presbyterian Secondary School, Legon, to use the effluent to irrigate some
crops “and when the crops are sold, revenue from these can be used to maintain
the system.”
The
researcher said the African Cat Fish (Adwen) did very well in the treated waste
water and noted that there was the need for a change of mind-set on the use of
the waste water, for which they were considering the use of certification from
the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA).
A Senior
Lecturer at the Kumasi Polytechnic, Mr Edem Bensah, who spoke on the
implementation plan for biogas, explained that biogas tanks needed to be built
in a dome shape to trap all the gas.
He said
building an average-sized plant with a 10m3 digester would cost between
GH¢7,000 and GH¢15,000, depending on the service provider, technology type and construction
materials used.
Prof
James G. Monney, a retired lecturer at KNUST, suggested that biogas tanks
should be constructed at the prisons, since they had sanitation challenges.
Meanwhile,
the chairman for the NLLAP, Ms Adwoa Painstil, WRC, said the commission had
begun a project at the Nsawam Prison, as it had been found that the prisoners
were polluting the Densu River.
This story was first published by the Daily Graphic on February 2, 2015
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