Veep inaugurates Zoompak waste transfer centre
A modern waste transfer station and medical waste treatment facility has been inaugurated at Teshie in the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipality in the Greater Accra Region to make solid waste collection more efficient.
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Known as the Zoompak Teshie Transfer Station, the facility, which can manage up to 1,300 tonnes of waste on a daily basis, will also serve the landfill site in Tema.
Benefits
It is also expected to ease the pressure on landfill sites and improve waste service delivery in the region.
Under the management of Zoompak Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies, the transfer station will serve as the critical consolidation link to effective and efficient waste management in the Greater Accra Region.
The subsidiary is a specialised waste disposal transit service provider that offers tailor-made services in the area of transportation of domestic, industrial and hazardous waste.
The transfer station will reduce the overall cost of operation of waste contractors in the region in terms of fuel and maintenance cost, as well as their turnaround time.
Medical facility
There is also a medical waste facility, known as the Zoompak Medical Waste Management which, on the other hand, has a fleet of vehicles to transfer about 1,350 tonnes of waste per day and has waste management programmes such as segregation of waste, proper waste disposal, transport and waste storage and implementation of contingency plans.
Its transfer station has been ISO certified with occupational health and safety management system.
Vice-President
Inaugurating the station yesterday, the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, described the facility as an example of what Ghanaian entrepreneurship and collaboration could achieve and lauded the initiative as a giant step towards achieving environmental cleanliness in the region.
Recalling the June 3 disaster that claimed about 150 lives in Accra, the Vice-President said the images of the floods and their aftermath exposed the refusal of the people to take care of the environment.
“Our environment will not take care of us if we fail to take care of our environment,” he added.
The Vice-President remarked that ensuring proper sanitary conditions and appropriate waste management was a collective responsibility.
He said while the government made the needed investment to improve waste management and sanitation, the citizenry also had a role to safeguard their own lives.
Mr Amissah-Arthur expressed regret at the refusal of some of the people to participate in the monthly national Sanitation Day clean-up excercise and urged them to be alive to that national call.
“I am confident that this public-private partnership can help address our sanitation and environmental concerns. Others can also consider investing in recycling of especially plastic and bottles,” the Vice-President said of the work station.
Jospong boss
The Chief Executive Officer of the Jospong Group of Companies, Mr Joseph Agyepong, in his remarks, said the waste station was born out of the visionary leadership of
President John Mahama and supported by Vice-President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur.
Giving a background of the project, Mr Agyepong explained that he was part of a trip by President Mahama to Turkey last year during which they were taken on a tour to several places, including sanitation and waste treatment plants.
He narrated that President Mahama, after showing interest in replicating the Turkish example in Ghana, threw a challenge to Zoomlion Ghana Limited and the city authorities to develop similar projects in Ghana.
He said he took President Mahama’s challenge and decided to pursue it with his partners in Turkey.
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“That was the beginning of the facility we are inaugurating today,” Mr Agyepong said, adding that over the years the company had made significant investment in the waste management sector.
Enumerating some of the achievements of the company, Mr Agyepong said currently the company had a waste bin manufacturing plant that could produce 36,000 waste bins in a month and had the vision to distribute two million of such bins by 2016.