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Kumasi and its environs will soon benefit from a €13-million fully customised waste water treatment plant to be known as the Kumasi Waste Water Treatment Plant (KWWTP).
The project, which will be completed in 18 months, is the result of a partnership between the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC) and a Hungarian engineering technology firm, Pureco Limited.
The water treatment plant is expected to create about 1,000 direct and indirect jobs in the area when completed.
Speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony for the project at Adagya, a suburb of Kumasi, the Executive Chairman of the JGC, Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, praised the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, for releasing the 130-acre land for the project, saying “this is a mark of the King’s dedication to the development of his people”.
He said the facility, which would be managed by Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited (SSGL), a subsidiary of the JGC, would have the capacity to treat 1,000m3 of waste water every day and turn waste water into compost for the agrarian community of Ghana.
Replication
Mr Agyepong stated that feasibility studies had been concluded to replicate the same project in Tamale, Takoradi and Tema.
He said the facility would also serve as a research centre for the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, among other institutions.
He gave an assurance that further collaboration with the Hungarian government would see the JGC procuring 100 cesspit emptying trucks and 100 compaction trucks to further ensure that the President’s vision of making Ghana clean was achieved.
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah, in a speech read on her behalf by the Deputy Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr Michael Gyato, said it was estimated that 90 per cent of Ghana’s faecal sludge was untreated, for which reason the installation of the facility in Kumasi was timely and strategic.
She said since assumption of office, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had made environmental sanitation a key priority, hence the establishment of the Sanitation Ministry to directly supervise the sector very well.
She expressed the belief that the innovation between the JGC and Pureco would help curb open defecation in communities in the Ashanti Region.
Mrs Dapaah expressed the government’s gratitude to the Hungarian government and for the partnership and the development of relations between Ghana and Hungary.
First Hungarian Ghanaian partnership
The Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Adrás Szab, lauded the partnership and said it was the first contract between a Hungarian company and a Ghanaian firm to bring development to the people.
The Deputy Secretary of State for Export Development of Hungary Foreign Affairs, Mr Ivan Joo, said the project was the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.
He lauded the JGC and its subsidiary the SSGL for the initiative and urged them to continue the good works for Ghana and its people.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Simon Osei Mensah, in his welcome address, urged all partners and stakeholders to give the project the attention it deserved to ensure that it was completed on schedule.
He called for more of such collaborations from the private sector and gave an assurance that President Akufo-Addo would continue to create a congenial environment for the private sector to thrive.
The contract was signed by Mr Agyepong and the Chief Executive of Pureco Limited, Mr Balint Havarh.
The project will be jointly financed by the Hungarian Exim Bank, the government of Hungary and the JGC.
Source:Graphic.com.gh
