The National Sanitation Day, which falls on the first Saturday of every month, has come to stay.
The day has been set aside to whip up interest in communities to encourage put their shoulders to the wheel in cleaning their neighbourhood and some public places such as schools and hospitals.
The special day has become necessary because the country has lagged behind in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal Seven (MDG 7) on environmental sustainability.
Perhaps this fate has befallen us because as a people we have not assessed the true economics of cleanliness; what has become known as ‘waste for money’.
In the first place, the waste management system in the country itself leaves much to be desired. While the GRAPHIC BUSINESS can say that the message to keep our surroundings clean has percolated many ears, many Ghanaians are at a loss with regard to what to do with their waste after collecting them.
Thanks to advancements in science, it is more than possible now to generate income from processes to keep one’s environment clean, the popular method being waste recycling.
The Accra Metropolis alone generates about 2,640 tonnes of waste a day. Interestingly, only about 65 per cent of the waste generated is properly collected in major cities.
It is heartwarming to note that the country’s generated waste is 76 per cent compostable and 95 per cent combustible, which makes a good case for power-generating incinerator systems. Straightaway, any community with sizeable population above 2,000 can galvanise the people to buy into the concept of separating their waste for economic purposes.
Although the country’s power distribution sector is not privatised, there is an arrangement for independent power producers (IPPs) to sell to an off taker, ECG, into the national electricity grid. This means that a community can generate power from waste to feed itself and sell any excess back to the grid for income.
The income can then be channelled into productive community development activities such as financing school buildings, hospitals, roads, bungalows for staff of essential service, awarding educational scholarships to schoolchildren.
The GRAPHIC BUSINESS believes this is an option that should be vigorously pursued across the country. The Ministry of Local Governance and Rural Development should collaborate with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation to make this a reality.
The example of HPW Fresh and Dry, a fruit-processing company in the Eastern Region which generates 60 per cent of its power needs from waste it generates, is such an important lesson that should be embraced across the country. There are examples in other regions.
The good news is that turning waste into energy or any economic value, for that matter, is no more rocket science; the solutions are on the shelves and the ministries named earlier should take up the challenge and play the leadership role in encouraging communities to implement them to generate electricity from waste.
It is our considered view that a better way of managing waste is one that has associated economic benefit, as it perfectly sits within the MDG goal on ensuring sustainable environment.
