ABSENCE OF A RENEWABLE ENERGY LAW IN GHANA IS IMPEDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IN GHANA

Juliet Degadzo, a member of the Ghana WATSAN Journalist Network recently participated in a seminar on Solar Energy and Biomass in Germany. She was part of a delegation invited by InWEnt under the auspices of the Ministry of Energy.
She filed the following report

Ghana’s delegation from various parts of the energy sector has called on government to speed up action to enact and enforce a law on renewable energy to utilize the abundant resources the country has which are lying fallow due to the absence of laws on renewable energy.

This came up at a technology transfer seminar between Germany and Ghana-Nigeria professionals in the Renewable Energy Sector specifically on Solar Energy and Biomass in Bavaria Germany. The event was organized by Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung gGmbH (InWEnt) a German based non-profit organization with a worldwide operation dedicated to human resource development, advanced training, and dialogue.

The fifth vice president of the Bavarian parliament Jorg Rohde, in his closing remarks, called on countries to unite towards fighting global challenges instead of engaging in unnecessary disputes. He says the world needs a unifying effort to meet its targets on the environment and its related issues. Speaking at a dinner to mark the closing ceremony, he stated that it is better for countries to trade amongst themselves to boost the global economy rather than engaging in unnecessary wars. “Your presence in Bavaria is gladdening since you are going to be ambassadors of Bavaria in your respective countries”. He also called on participants to share knowledge and use the platform created for networking to enhance their knowledge base on renewable energy which offers a better solution to the world’s energy demands thus promoting a healthy and safe environment for posterity.

Georg Reichl, head of division, foreign economic relations with Africa, Latin America, Middle East Turkey and Economic Cooperation with developing countries, opened and closed the seminar officially and entreated developing countries such as Ghana and Nigeria to make investments that have long-term benefits. He explained that most often than not, many countries do not consider the long-term benefits of projects they undertake, but are deterred by initial cost implications that may seem high, but are actually cheaper in the long run.

According to Daniel Delatree at the chamber of commerce of Bavaria Germany, the introduction of Renewable Energy and Heat Acts have opened the renewable energy market by creating 278,000 new jobs since 2000, Germany has cut down its green house gas emission by 21% (1998-2012) and have exceeded the Kyoto Protocol since 2007. Proper waste disposal mechanisms and engineered land filled sites in Bavaria have contributed to the increase in electricity generation from biomass. It is rather sad that Ghana lacks such proper waste management mechanisms. Participants were also introduced to the general framework and technology attachments for the use of sun energy and biomass over all in connection with the recycling of waste and waste water in Bavaria. Some highlights were on the technological utilization of waste and waste water recycling for energy generation. As part of extensive discussion with the Bavaria Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport, & Technology will be sending a delegation to Ghana in November 2009 to ascertain the impact and challenges in the development of renewable energy sector in Ghana.

Mr. Sackniess also said InWEnt’s practice-oriented programs are designed to assist participants in making better decisions. Instruction is offered on interdisciplinary management techniques together with international and intercultural know-how. Further, he said InWEnt is preparing the actors of tomorrow today to work together with developing and transition countries which call for the involvement of all and sundry. There were field visits to many companies involved in solar energy and biomass such as YOKU & KAITO Solar Technology Companies, Moosburg sewage works, AVA company with usage of city dump to generate electricity into the grid network, Solux Company (Solar Light Ghana-Project) MTU Augsburg- producer and operator of industrial biogas works. Biogas plants with various feedstocks such as food leftovers, cow dung, etc, including an integrated biogas plant which utilizes ecological principles in their operations.
The participants have also agreed to create a platform for multi-sectoral approach to implement at least one demonstration project to showcase the various renewable energy technologies and also increase advocacy in the dissemination of renewable energy technologies such as solar energy and biomass. Seventeen out of twenty (20) participants, that was originally selected, embarked on this trip to participate in the seminar in Bavaria-Germany.

Insanitary living threatens NHIS survival - Costs scheme GH¢ 70 million in 2008 alone

Extension services Coordinator of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency CWSA Theodora Adomako Adjei has warned that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) faces imminent extinction if the scheme does not focus on the issues of hygiene.
She said if the issues of hygiene are not addressed properly, there could come a time when the scheme may not have money to run.

Speaking to this paper after a 'a media/children's forum' in Cape Coast to usher in the 2nd Global Hand Washing Day celebrations, Mrs. Adomako-Agyei disclosed that NHIS spent over GH¢ 70 million on sanitation related diseases in 2008 alone.

“Majority of the cases reported at the Out Patient Department (OPD) of our health institutions are hygiene related, and if the trend is not stemmed, it would have dire consequences in terms of the cost of treatment sooner than later,” she cautioned.

Mrs. Adomako-Agyei explained that the poor hand washing habits of many Ghanaians is mostly responsible for this turn of events where diseases such as cholera, diarrhoe and respiratory tract infections such as the N1H1 (Swine flu) have become so prevalent in the country.

She lamented that many Ghanaians eat their own, or other people’s excrement because many are those who, either do not wash hands at all, or do not wash hands with soap after visiting the toilet, or before touching food.

Addressing the forum, the Coordinator revealed with statistical evidence that only 2.3% of mothers wash their hands with soap after disposing of their children’s feaces, while 2.7 % also wash hands with soap after visiting the toilet.
According to her, 41% of mothers also wash hands with water only after cleaning the child’s toilet, while 32% also wash hands with just water after they visit the toilet.

She noted, “As many as 63% of Ghanaians do not wash hands at all in a situation where about 68% of Ghanaians depend on public toilets due to the lack of toilets in their homes.

“The nature of public places of convenience is so unhygienic that one must always wash hands with soap after visiting those places,” she urged.

She called for the culture of hand washing with soap after visiting the toilets and before eating to be inculcated into children right from infancy so that it would become ingrained in the psyche throughout their lives.

The coordinator lampooned Ghanaians’ attitude of watering hands before eating but washing them with soap after eating, apparently to kill the scent of meat or fish on the hands.

She emphasised that hand washing with soap, is the single most effective health intervention method that can save a lot of lives, particularly among children, urging the public to demand the provision of hand washing facilities such as clean water and soap at vantage points: near public latrines, lorry parks and market places to promote further the practice in the society.

At the celebration which fell on October 15, Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing , Hanna Bisiw urged all parents to develop the practice of hand washing with soap in order to prevent diseases such as the N1H1( Swine flu) and other respiratory tract infections from attacking their Children.

“Women as mothers and care-givers are the major the major providers and servers of food both in the home and at public places,” Dr. Bisiw noted, warning, “Thus, one woman with contaminated hands will affect the health of her whole family and any outsiders who are served food or drinks by this woman.”

She therefore called on all Ghanaians to adopt the habit of hand washing with soap and make it a part of their lives.

Communication and Campaign Officer of WaterAid, Janet Alamisi Dabire called on both school children and the media partners to promote the campaign to send the message into the communities.

WaterAid Ghana, Schools Health Education Project (SHEP), Ministries of Local Government and Rural Development, Women and Children’s Affairs, Education, as well as Works and Housing are some of the collaborating agencies in the hand washing with soap campaign.



By: Justice Lee Adoboe

These little things matter -An editorial on the Global Handwashing Day

It is said that “a stitch in time saves nine,” and “to be fore-warned is to be fore-armed.”

That is why it is heart warming to realise that some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), international organisations and Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) operating in the water and sanitation delivery sector have taken it upon themselves to promote hand washing with soap in the Ghanaian society.

The fact that this simple and cost effective habit, if well harnessed and inculcated into the life styles of the average Ghanaians would be a panacea to majority of the health problems people face cannot be overemphasised.

Diseases such as Cholera, Diarrhoea and other respiratory tract infections which break out in many communities with fatal consequences are all hygiene and sanitation related.

Food vendors have been identified as one of the major sources of these infections as many of them throw hygienic practices to the dogs and treat food which ends up in people’s stomachs with careless abandon.

Visit the preparation points of staples such as kenkey, banku, fufu wache and Hausa koko, and you will be appalled by the sheer tolerance for house flies. Many of these people leave the food items and utensils being used uncovered for these disease-laden flies to feast on.

Unfortunately most of the Ghanaian delicacies sold along the streets are prepared from households and communities that do not have toilets, making people defeacate around in what is described in local parlance as “Free-Range.”

Moreover, workers pick their noses while working while some of them only water their hands, after visiting the very toilets that are mostly unkempt and dip those same hands back into the food they are preparing for public consumption.

Vendors along the streets especially those girls selling dough nuts (bofrot) and other such pastries leave them uncovered for the whole day. They pick their noses while selling and visit public toilets which have the reputation of being some of the nastiest places in the Ghanaian society intermittently, but do not have water or soap to wash their hands with.

With these same hands they serve food to the general public to eat, thus causing an increase in the rate of contraction of these hygiene related diseases.
The GH¢70 million the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) alone is said to have spent on such infections in 2008 is frightening.

Also frightening, but real is the statistical evidence that only 2.3% of mothers wash their hands with soap after disposing of their children’s feaces, while 2.7 % also wash hands with soap after visiting the toilet.

Furthermore, 41% of mothers also wash hands with water alone after cleaning the child’s toilet, while 32% also wash hands with just water after they visit the toilet.

Amidst all this, it is important to note that as many as 63% of Ghanaians do not wash hands at all in a situation where about 68% of Ghanaians depend on public toilets due to the lack of toilets in their homes.

The implication is that majority of Ghanaians visit public places of convenience, and carry germs from there to distribute to all those they greet with their hands.
It is for this reason we would like to join in the campaign of encouraging our folks to start cultivating the habit of washing their hands with soap after visiting the toilets, and before dealing with food.

Why eat back your own or another person’s excrement with the billions of infections and viruses each gram carries?

By this simple and cost effective intervention of hand washing with soap people will save their own lives and those of others, while at the same time reducing the propensity of the outbreak of epidemics such as cholera, diarrhoea, N1H1 (pandemic flu) and many others which come along with high financial costs and the potential for the loss of life.

Indeed, for truly clean hands, wash your hands with soap.

An editorial by "The Financial Intelligence"

GWJN pledges commitment to Handwashing with soap

Members of the Ghana Watsan Journalist Network (GWJN) have pledged their commitment to promote Handwashing with soap .The Pledge was made at the ongoing celebrations to mark the Global Handwashing Day, with an emphasis on washing hands with soap at all critical times.
The national celebrations of the Global Handwashing Day is taking place in Cape Coast. October 15, every year has been set aside as Global Handwashing Day. WaterAid Ghana has sponsored two members of the network, Justice Adoboe of the Financial Intelligence Newspaper and Tony Sabuky of Channel R, FM station to participate in a series of activities lined up for celebrations.

They joined the many students who are participating in the celebrations, by pledging the commitment to Handwashing soap through a hand print on a canvas.

Photo : Tony Sabuky

An abandoned borehole discovered in a forest

The persistence of the Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Dr. Hannah Louisa Bissiw, has led to the discovery of a GH¢ 20,000 bore hole drilled in 2003.

According to the Greater Accra Regional Hydrologic Engineer of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) Jerry Asigbey, the agency sank the borehole in 2003 with assistance from the DANIDA phase three project and was intended to be mechanized to serve communities in the area.

Mr. Asigbey says “However, try as we did, we could not secure funding from the government to complete the mechanization process”.

Mechanization of the bore hole will cost US$ 910 .It is 80.75 metres deep with the capacity to produce 10,667 gallons of water per hour. When complete, this bore-hole sited deep in the forest around Adoteiman, off the Adenta Aburi Highway, would be able to serve Amrahia, Ashiyie, Amanfrom, Adenta and all their surrounding villages with water.

This would alleviate the acute water crisis in those vicinities which keep getting worse by the day; Adenta has been without water for close to three weeks.

It took some determination from Dr. Bissew who was on familiarization visit and her team some effort to located the abandoned borehole. The team had to abandon their vehicles about three kilometers to go in search of the location of the bore hole.

An octogenarian farmer, Cephas Korku Ocloo, who was on his farm, about 500 meters from the search location had to led the team to the drilling point which had overgrown with shrubs.
Mr. Asigbey told the minister that the CWSA has the expertise to provide mechanized bore-holes throughout Accra but due to lack of funds, these plans have not seen much progress.

He asked government to make funds available, saying, “If GWCL needs $10 million in a year, just 20 % of that can help CWSA to do a lot of work to complement GWCL’s efforts.

She also visited the Oyibi, where the community is served from a mechanized bore-hole constructed by the CWSA. The systems manager, Angelina Adoglah-Mensah said the system which is on a dual bore-hole produces a total of 57,200 gallons (260 cubic meters) in a day, serving all the surrounding communities including the Good News Theological College, Ghana Christian College and the hamlets around Oyibi.

Dr. Bissiw urged them to use 10% of revenue they retain to develop household toilet facilities for the people in order to help in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in sanitation.

By Justice Lee Adoboe (Financial Intelligence)

World Water Week opens in Stockholm

Stockholm August 16-22, 2009

The 2009 World Water Week has opened in Stockholm . The World Water Week in Stockholm is the annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent water-related issues.

Organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute, it brings together experts, practitioners, decision makers and leaders from around the globe to exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions. The theme for 2009 is Responding to Global Changes: Accessing Water for the Common Good.

Visit the WaterCube podcast and listen to interviews with the conference participants conducted by seasoned reporters and advocates including Ghana’s Naa Lamily Bentil.


Follow daily events at the World Water Week.

IRC sponsors GWJN member to World Water Week

Harriet Naa Lamiley Bentle,a senior environmental reporter with the Daily Graphic and a member of the Ghana Watsan Journalist Network (GWJN) has been selected by IRC to attended the World Water Week in Stckholm from August 16 to the 22,2009.

While at World Water Week in Stockholm,Naa Lamiley will conduct interviews for "the Water Cube" an online video site .

Koforidua water project nearing completion

The €35 million water project designed to solve the water delivery problem in the Eastern Regional capital, Koforidua and its environs is nearing completion, Project Manager at the site, Allan Okomeng-Mensah told Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Hannah Bissiw last week.

With the completion of the phase one of the project which involves the construction and installation of equipment at the treatment plant at Ortekpelu, 24 kilometres from Koforidua, all that is left is the completion of the booster station currently close to finishing, and Koforidua would start receiving adequate water by December 2009.

Mr. Okomeng-Mensah explained to the deputy minister who paid a familiarization visit to the project site that when completed, the plant which was test-run for 21 days in February has the capacity to produce 4.2 million gallons of water a day.

According to him, when this capacity is added to the 1.2 million gallons being produced currently at Koforidua, residents would be able to receive water supply seven days in the week, 24 hours a day.

Currently water is being rationed for residents who are served once a week from the Koforidua treatment plant, but this is set to change as soon as Ortekpelu comes on board.

“In addition to the regional capital, both Osiem and Old Tafo with all communities along the way from Ortekpelu to Koforidua will also be served”, Mr.Okomeng-Mensah disclosed, adding that “we are also installing small and large community stand pipes to serve communities along the way from Koforidua to Osiem and Old Tafo as well”

He said the new project was designed, taking into consideration, the future development of commercial and industrial activity in the capital. For this reason, he explained that the current provision of 10 gallons per person per day will be doubled so that even with future development there would not be a problem of water shortage.

According to him, the intake, which is 8.5 km from Ortekpelu has a dual intake system with a floating pontoon stationed on that side of the Volta River. He added that in the seasons when water levels go down the pontoon which has a pump installed on it would pump water to the treatment plant. Hon. Dr. Bissiw urged the contractors, DENYS to deliver on schedule so as to bring to an end permanently the water delivery problem of Koforidua.

In a related development, the program to start pumping water from the Agona Kwanyarko treatment plant to Kasoa is also on course.

This project, when completed would take Kasoa off the Weija supply system in order to free some more water at Weija to boost the Accra supply.
It is funded by a € 12.2 million loan and grant from the Netherland government with DENYS as the contractors. Currently the Kwanyarko plant produces 35,000 cubic metres (7.7 million gallons) a day which was expanded plant in 2007.

While the Kasoa supply system comes on board, the dam level would be raised by two metres and dredging carried out to expand the capacity of the dam to extend supplies to parts of Accra. The Sub-Saharan Divisional Manager for DENYS Bart D. Smedt disclosed that the project would be complete by the end of 2009.

He assured the minister that with the current capacity the 2025 target would still be met without any shortfalls.

The Station Manager of Aqua Vitens Rand, Gideon Asare Annor also stated that currently the new plant is only doing 60% of its capacity and so water can comfortably be taken beyond Kasoa when the dredging of the dam on River Ayensu is completed.
Written by Justice Lee Adoboe(Koforidua)Financial Intelligence

Aqualyng to alleviate Accra’s water crisis

Aqualyng Ghana Ltd a private utilities company is working feverishly on a project to alleviate the water needs of Accra’s coastal suburbs af Teshie, Nungua, La, Labadi Beach Hotel and other nearby communities.
In that direction, the company is directing a 40 million dollar investment to purify the sea water for the consumption of the coastal communities.
Speaking to the media during a tour of facilities of the company at the Tema Harbour and the Nungua Beach, Managing Director of Aqualing, Henry K. Ofori explained that the company is using the processes of desalination and reverse osmosis to transform the sea water into portable drinking water for the communities.
According to him the same system has been used in California, Spain, Israel and the Middle East to produce portable drinking water for the people.
Mr. Ofori assured that the technology being used would completely make the water clean, hygienic and healthy for human consumption. He also gave the assurance that although the project is capital-intensive, the water would be supplied to the Ghana Water Company which would in turn deliver to consumers at the same rates fixed by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission.
According to Mr. Ofori, Aqualyng is undertaking the project with support from Standard Bank of South Africa who gave them the credit facility for the project.
Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Albert Abongo said government would support private investments into the water sector but would also ensure that tariffs are affordable for consumers.
He commended Aqualyng for their initiative, and charged them to ensure that water is delivered on schedule with the quality of the end product not being compromised.
Managing Director of Ghana Water Company Ltd, Kwaku Botwe said that the pipes would be laid one Kilometre into the sea; hence waste would not be a problem. He also explained that Aqualyng would be working to standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ensure that the water to be produced is finally safe for human consumption.