Saving Accra from its sewerage mess
On the periphery of the University of Ghana lands, near the Legon Botanical Gardens, a flock of birds chirp endlessly over pools of water surrounded by plush green lawn.
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Tall trees nearby whisper breezes, conspiring with tiny waves in the curvaceous pools to put the finishing touches on the awesome sight that a first-time visitor will assume is a hub for fishing ponds. It is not.
It is rather the Legon Sewerage Treatment Plant operating on the treatment concept of waste stabilisation ponds where volumes of liquid waste from University of Ghana Legon, University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA) and Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary Legon (PRESEC) communities and their environs (and in the near future Achimota) ends up.
What is ASIP project?
Ordinarily, anywhere filth ends up should have pungent smells that will surely puncture the nostrils but not this site which is part of the Accra Sewerage Improvement Project (ASIP).
There is no electricity involved in the operation of the facility; the system runs because it relies on gravity, sunlight, bacteria and the wind—natural is the spine of the entire system— which allows the waste to bob and weave through the ponds to where it could be released into the environment cleaner than it left toilets and kitchens. The common buzz-word is “green”. This facility uses green technology to treat waste water. “Our waste stabilisation pond is considered green by the international community because the treatment plant is energy efficient, zero application of chemicals, in that natural means of treatment is employed, that is, sunlight, wind and naturally occurring bacterial do all the work,” Mr James Abeku Ato-Brewoo, one of the Assistant Engineers of ASIP, said of the facility.
The ASIP is aimed at improving and expanding sewerage and sanitation facilities in Accra and its environs.
Projected to cost $77.55 million, the African Development Fund and the Government of Ghana-funded project is expected to end this year with the objectives that include strengthening the sewerage staff of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to operate and maintain the sewerage system on a sustainable basis.
It also seeks to replace the current on-site human waste treatment systems with an environmentally friendly and socially acceptable off-site treatment in Accra and its immediate surroundings.
It is 12 p.m. at the Korle Bu Ministry of Health Basic School. A group of pupils run after a punctured football. Occasionally, some of the students abandon the field and run into an ASIP-funded washroom.
It is 7.15 a.m., tiny chain of smokes rise into the sky as residents of a slum in Achimota squat by the railway tracks to do what most would only do while hiding –– go to the toilet.
One by one, they arrive with newspapers, toilet rolls water bottles in hand. Some try to hide, but others are not bothered about being in the open to release their ‘unwanted goods’.
Minutes later they left just as they came, only without their toiletries—just empty hands and empty bottles. But they left behind excreta of all colours and sizes with a stench powerful enough to compel you to hold your nose.
In a city in which the sewerage network has lost track of 85 per cent of liquid waste generated by its residents, open defecation and untreated waste dumped into drains into surface water with some seeping into groundwater, creates a ticking health bomb.
Even worse, the beginning of seasonal rains worsens the problem with clogged and damaged sewage lines spilling rubbish, including human waste, on the streets and into houses.
According to available statistics, about 15 per cent of the city of Accra, mainly the central area, is served by a piped waterborne sewerage network. The remaining areas are predominantly served by on-site sanitation facilities in the form of septic tanks, pit latrines, improved pit latrines, etc.
Accra’s sewerage network has seen very little extension since its construction in the early 1970s. The effect of neglect and poor maintenance of sanitation and sewerage systems in the city has resulted in an increase in pollution of surface water bodies in the metropolis and adjoining areas.
Weak or non-existent enforcement of environmental laws, rapid urban development and a lack of awareness about the dangers of sewage are all to blame for the mess.
It is these ills of urban development that ASIP is expected to cure. The project is expected to improve 95.9 km of the sewerage network, thus improve and expand the city’s sewerage network by 40 per cent.
Residents, businesses and institutions in the La Dade Kotopon Municipal Assembly, the La Nkwantanang-Madina Municipal Assembly and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly will be the major beneficiaries of the project which is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Timelines and facilities Pumping stations
To ensure seamless flow of effluent from homes and offices into the treatment plant at Legon and the Mudor Treatment Plant which is being rehabilitated, four new pumping stations have been built at the Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary (PRESEC), the University of Ghana and the Accra High School.
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Five other similar facilities are under construction at Dansoman, Achimota School, University of Ghana (Staff Village) and Korle-Bu junction to boost the flow through the sewerage system.
Additionally, existing pumping stations situated in Labone, the Ministries, the State House, the High Street and Mudor (Central Accra Pumping Station - CAPS) are expected to be rehabilitated as part of the project.
That is not all. The project has provided 42 (20-seat capacity) water closets in communities, schools and polyclinics in the Ga South Municipal, Accra Metropolitan, the La Dade Kotopon Municipal and the Ledzokuku Krowor Municipal assemblies. Additional 28 similar facilities (school toilets) in the above-mentioned Assemblies are expected to be added by the end of the project deadline. Eighty-five boreholes have also been provided to ensure continuous supply of water to the toilet facilities.
The Korle Bu Ministry of Health Basic School is one of the beneficiaries of the project.
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A pupil of the school, Ewurabena Ofori-Adjei, told the Daily Graphic that the facility had eased considerable pressure on the school’s old six-seater toilet, which served 2000 in the past.
“It is very useful. If you want to wash your hand, there is a basin that has running water to wash your hands so that you don’t get cholera and other diseases.”
In spite of its success story, maintenance remains a problem as after handing over the project to the schools and the communities; some of them struggle to keep it in good shape resulting in quick deterioration.
Currently, the Police Hospital, the Achimota School and Hospital, the University of Ghana, Parliament House, Ministries, UPSA, PRESEC and the Supreme Court are institutions connected to the network.
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The future of sewer management in Accra
The Project Manager of ASIP, Mr Stephen Ackon, said, “What we are doing to curb sewerage spillage in the city is the rehabilitation of existing sewerage line which has broken down.”
“We now have a contractor on site that is doing all the rehabilitation and where possible extend the sewerage network. So that at least we can get maximum flow, instead of people discharging their toilet water and soak-away effluent into drains. We will be collecting maximum effluent as it is possible for treatment,” he added.
The AMA has, since 2010, been saying it will close down the Lavender Hill. However, in 2013, the Assembly said it had procured six digesters, the new scientific liquid waste facility at Mudor in Accra to treat the city’s septage into organic material and biofuel. Records have shown that the digesters could not process all the liquid waste (more than 120 trucks of liquid waste) the Lavender hill receives daily.
Lavender Hill Closure
The facility handles 50 to 60 trucks per day and the rest of the septage has to be dumped at the Lavender Hill, making it difficult for the city authorities to completely shut down the dumping site.
But the Project Manager - ASIP said the Lavender Hill would be decommissioned because eight more digesters were being procured under a different arrangement (not under ASIP) by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to complement the existing six digesters at Mudor.
“When the expanded treatment system for septage is completed, one hundred per cent of what goes into Lavender Hill untreated and discharged will now be treated before discharging into the environment.” There will be a receptacle to receive septage and digesters to treat the septage and will turn the solid part of the septage (waste) to fertiliser. The liquid separated will be treated and discharged into the sea.
Accra is a city whose expansion is hardly planned. Sprawling residential areas in need of waste and sanitation management means that city authorities have to be on their toes to meet the growing demand.
“Where we have septic tanks, as well, we have to cater for them because majority of the people in the city are using septic tanks. Even though the city is expanding, the assemblies are also looking out for ways to treat the waste,” he said.
He, however, said a greater collaboration was needed to deal with the multiple challenges that came with managing an efficient and reliable sewerage network.
Challenges
The indiscipline in Accra is not just limited to building on watercourses and dumping refuse in drains; the city has also become notorious for encroachment on sewer lines and manholes.
According to ASIP, other utility companies, the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the telcos sometimes dig and damage sewer lines. Especially during road construction some of the sewer manholes are covered up or filled with earth material. This damage is covered up and when discovered, the cost of repairing the damage is borne by the project. One other challenge is manhole cover theft.
That aside, Mr Ato-Brewoo said, “People put garbage in the chambers. You go to certain areas and people open the manhole covers and pour refuse inside. You find car tyres and all manner of things. Some of the residential users even flush towels and sponges in some of the sewer lines.”
Whichever way we look at it, the government can pump as much into building a seamless sewer network for our cities, but without a proper maintenance culture and positive attitude from the public, there would be no end in sight to the chaos that characterises waste management in Ghana.