3 Regions to get e-waste treatment centres

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is undertaking the construction of three centres for the collection and dismantling of electronic waste (e-waste) in the country. The centres, which would be located at Sege in the Ada West District in the Greater Accra Region, Nkronso in the East Akim Municipality in the Eastern Region and Tamale in the Northern Region, are being constructed with funding from the World Bank as part of the bank’s Africa Environmental Health and Pollution Management Programme (AEHPMP).

The Coordinator of the AEHPMP, Larry Kotoe, who made this known to the Daily Graphic last Tuesday, said the centres would be constructed within six months to put the country in a better position to effectively manage e-waste. 

Mr Kotoe was speaking on the sideline of a stakeholders’ sensitisation and awareness creation forum at Sege, organised by the EPA ahead of the commencement of work on the centre to be located in that area.

The five-year AEHPMP is being implemented in five African countries – Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, to reduce exposure to mercury and unintentional persistent organic pollutants (uPOPs) pollution at pilot sites and also strengthen the institutional capacity to manage and regulate mercury use in artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) and e-waste. 

The project has four components - institutional strengthening, knowledge and capacity building; policy dialogue and regulatory enhancements; application of technological tools and economic approaches and coordination and management.

It would also help provide a robust infrastructure ecosystem for integrated management of e-waste in these countries.

Mr Kotoe explained that although the construction of the centres would be funded by the EPA through the World Bank support, private sector operators would manage the facilities.

He said private entities, licensed by the EPA, would collect the e-waste from households and take them to the facilities for dismantling and treatment for recycling.

The geoscientist added that a delivery application would be developed to enable individuals and households with large volumes of e-waste to call for delivery services.

Mr Kotoe said the EPA had a stockpile of e-waste that had been collected from institutions in the Greater Accra Region.

He said the project was a timely intervention given that e-waste had become a major headache for the country.

Mr Kotoe said the poor management of e-waste, through the open burning of obsolete electrical and electronic waste to extract useful metals in places such as Agbogbloshie, Ashaiman and Kpone, posed a serious threat to air quality and human health. 

The acting Deputy Director for Technical Services at the EPA, Esi Nerquaye Tetteh, said that poor handling of e-waste had dire consequences on health and the environment for which reason all stakeholders needed to do their part to improve the e-waste management value chain. 

"As a country, we have not built robust infrastructure to be able to properly manage e-waste so most of it is handled by informal waste collectors who do not have the appropriate technology to manage it. 

This leads to emission of poisonous chemicals which could leach into waterbodies, soil and cause more pollution,” she said. 

Ms Tetteh stressed that it was important to move to an improved waste management regime that allowed e-waste to be collected, treated and recycled without polluting the environment. 

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Ada West, Sampson Tetteh Kpankpah, assured the EPA that stakeholders within the district would work together to ensure the centre was constructed in the area.