As part of efforts to ensure a robust implementation of Ghana’s regulations on e-waste management, the European Union-funded E-MAGIN project organised a two-day Roundtable Policy Dialogue in Sekondi-Takoradi and Cape Coast respectively.
The Dialogue aimed at bringing together local policymakers to brainstorm and collect ideas on local challenges, solutions and potential actors needed in formalising the informal sector and setting up collection centres in the e-waste sector in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.
In Takoradi, 17 participants from the Waste Management and Planning Department of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA), Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipal Assembly, Shama District Assembly, Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA), Takoradi Technical University, Takoradi and Tarkwa Scrap Dealers Association, Ghana Electronic Services Technicians Association (GESTA), and the National Air-conditioning Refrigeration Workshop Owners Association (NARWOA) shared insights and suggestions on how e-waste management can be improved in their communities.
During the dialogue, participants agreed that to establish functional collection and dismantling centres there is a need to set up ‘satellite collection centres’ within the city to reduce the burden of transportation of e-waste by consumers.
Similarly, in Cape Coast sixteen participants from different local institutions including Cape Coast Municipal Assembly (CCMA), leaders of scrap dealers’ associations in the collection, repair and refurbishment businesses, and the Cape Coast Technical University were led by the E-MAGIN team to discuss the local needs and resources that can support formalisation and the establishment of collection centres in Central Region.
A key outcome of the forum was a roadmap by EPA and CCMA to liaise and write to Lands Commission for the allocation of part of government lands for demarcation as industrial plots for e-waste dealers.
Prof. Rosemond Boohene, the EMAGIN Project Coordinator, explained to B&FT that the policy roundtable was to get the opinions and ideas from those working on the ground with regard to the formalisation and establishment of collection centres as part of supporting implementation of Act 917 and LI2250.
Ebenezer Kumi, Ghana Coordinator for Adelphi Research (the German Consulting firm for the project), also explained that the project seeks to ensure proper disposal and management of e-waste and further dialogue with MMDAs on the roles they have to play in implementing the law – especially those that support formalisation and establishing collection centres”.
Ing. Hakeem Seidu, a Senior Programme Officer of EPA, indicated that to further develop a structured approach to e-waste management, the EPA in cooperation with the Sustainable Recycling Industries (SRI) project has completed the development of Technical Guidelines in Environmentally Sound E-waste Management for Collectors, Collection Centres, Transporters, Treatment Facilities and Final Disposal in Ghana. Together, these national instruments stipulate the duties of various stakeholders with respect to collection, storage, transportation, treatment and final disposal of e-waste in Ghana.
