Dedicated solid and liquid waste treatment facilities are under construction in the Northern Region of Ghana. They should help rid the region of the 183,000 tonnes of waste it produces each year, thereby improving the health of the populations.
The treatment plant will be located in Gbalahi, in the Tamale district. It will be capable of treating 1,000 m3 of wastewater per day in this town, whose wastewater production varies between 400 and 500 m3 per day. Effluents from surrounding towns such as Savelugu, Nantong, Tolon, Kumbumgu and Mion, will also be handled by the future plant. According to the Ghanaian authorities, the treatment plant will be built in one year.
The implementation of the solid waste treatment unit will take less time, 4 months. The plant, also located in Gbalahi, will be equipped with units for sorting and recycling solid waste and composting organic waste. It will be capable of processing 200 tonnes of solid waste per day in the North region. The plant will also provide fertilisers and compost to farmers in the region.
The construction work for the plant will cost €20 million, i.e. approximately 136 million Ghanaian cedis. The new facilities will be made available to Zoomlion, the company that provides the public waste management service in several Ghanaian cities. The subsidiary of the Jospong group already indicates that the Tamale wastewater treatment plant will create around 75 direct jobs and more than 200 indirect jobs.
The Northern Region Sanitation Project comes just days after the launch of a similar initiative in Tema, Ghana. In this other city, the government plans to build a sewage treatment plant, a sewage sludge treatment plant and a solid waste treatment unit.
Inès Magoum