The Lavender Fecal Treatment Project that treats close to 18,000 liquid and 26,000 solid waste in Accra requires GH₵3m every month to manage the facility, Managing Director of the Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited, operators of the facility, Haidar Said has disclosed.
According to him, the company has been operating without a valid contract and funding since its inception early 2017 and has appealed to government and the local government committee of Parliament to assist them secure contract.
He made the appeal when the Local Government Commitment of Parliament paid an urgent working visit to the plant site [Mudor treatment plant] in Accra.
“I hope we will not get to the shutting down of the facility, but we just have to sound our voice to the decision makers and leaders of this country. As I said earlier, we can operate on our own using our own money for a certain period of time, after that I don’t expect ECG to give us free electricity, or staff to work without salaries or equipment to be replaced free of charge. We want to find a solution to keep this place running”.
He also explained that waste water treatment involves a biological process which takes six to eight months to mature; “when we finished the construction of the facility we couldn’t keep it ideal, we had to start building that process and we have been using our own resources to do that since January 2017”.
The facility treats waste water from Flagstaff House, Parliament House, Cantonments, Ministries, Korle-bu and other environs in the capital.
Mr Said also maintained that US$20m was spent on the Mudor treatment plant.
Acting chairman of the Local Government Committee of Parliament, Ameyaw Kyeremeh indicated that Parliament would take steps to ensure a proper contract is signed in order to keep the operations of the place running for the benefit of Ghanaians.
He also stated that a shutdown of the Mudor facility would make Accra a messy place to live.
“We think it is a strategic national asset, similar things need to be replicated in our regional capitals”.
