Parliament approves GH¢95m loan for Accra liquid, medical waste system
Parliament has approved a request by the government to guarantee a GH¢95 million loan facility for the construction and management of liquid and medical waste system at Korle-Bu in Accra.
The construction and management of the liquid waste system would include the provision of the Korle-Bu Medical Waste Disposal Plant, Mudor Faecal Waste Treatment Plant and Accra Treatment Plant.
The loan credit agreement for the project is between Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited (SSGL) and Standard Chartered Bank (Ghana). Under the project, which is a public-private partnership SSGL will construct an integrated network to connect all the three existing sewerage treatment plants and their servicing pumps stations.
When completed, the network would process more than 4, 0000 tonnes of solid waste sludge and sewerage materials daily. Other components of the project include the rehabilitation of the Korle-Bu sewerage network, building efficient and technologically tested faecal and sewerage treatment plants (Mudor and Lavenda Hill) to serve the whole of Accra; recycling of liquid waste sludge into compost for agricultural use; and waste-to-energy technology to harness methane gas for use in commercial quantities for power generation and vehicular use, among others.
The project would also train technocrats in sewerage and waste treatment plants.
According to the report of Parliament’s Joint Committee on Finance and Local Government and Rural Development, the project would significantly improve efficiency and performance in local government accountability for liquid waste and environmental sanitation in the Accra-Tema Metropolitan Area (ATMA).
It would also help to curb the outbreak of environmentally related diseases such as malaria and cholera, while also strengthening the weak liquid waste infrastructure and management.
According to the committee’s report, while progress was being made in the handling of solid waste in recent times with the implementation of the first phase of the solid waste management in the Greater Accra Region, there was the urgent need to address the liquid waste management systems in order to enable the country to better manage the growing liquid and medical waste challenges.
It observed that the Korle-Bu sewerage system was constructed in the late 1950s with the opening of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital when the population of the area was about 1,900 including residents, patients on admission and staff of the hospital.
The current population of the Korle-Bu area is over 8,000 including a daily admission of above 250 to the teaching hospital and transient traffic of over 1,200.
When the loan came before the House for discussion, a Minister of State and Member of Parliament for Garu/Tempane, Mr Dominic Azumah, stated that the project was timely and expressed concern about the effect of the pungent smell of faecal matter on people living close to the area popularly referred to as Lavinda Hill.
Source: Daily Graphic