The Africa Environmental Sanitation Consult (AESC), the research and consulting arm of the Jospong Group of Companies, says the group is seeking more international partnerships to enhance its waste management prowess.
This, it said, would advance its innovative waste management approaches and help develop new ones to support the country’s efforts to tackle the impacts of climate change.
In an interview with the Ghanaian Times in Glasgow, Scotland on Friday, the AESC Managing Director, DrAbenaAntwi and Israel Acheampong, a Consultant at the firm underscored the importance of proper waste management to the climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
They spoke on the sidelines of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) where the company showcased its waste operational activities at the Ghana Pavilion.
“We are excited for the opportunity to be here, while we look for the partners, we are also looking for the people because sometimes we can’t actually find it in the space that we operate in. And because we are looking for technology, we think the COP is the best platform,” DrAntwi said.
She said the company had recognised some Japanese firms and companies in the same waste management sector, equipped with the machinery and expertise to convert waste to energy and was hoping to strike a relationship and tap into its expertise to bolster the groups’s operations.
“Because we are trying to infuse technology into our operations, we, sort of, need people who are far advanced who can advise us in our operations within our kind of environment in which we operate,”DrAntwi said.
On his part, Mr Acheampong said the collection, recycling and safe disposal of waste by the company had reduced the incidence of burning which results in release of emissions into the atmosphere as well as indiscriminate dumping which chokes gutters and caused flooding.
“Release of emissions and flooding are serious climate change issues. If the waste are not collected and people are burning and indiscriminately dumping, it can affect the climate” he said
Mr Acheampong said in order to upscale its waste collection, the group invested in large storage facilities with bins and collection systems that have improved collection of waste from about four per cent in 2006, to 21 per cent currently.
He said the group had also brought in Euro-3 trucks whose emissions were lesser than euro 1, euro 2 trucks which most waste management companies use in the country.
He said the group was recovering the organic component of the waste and adding value to it and producing compost which is a soil ammonium or fertiliser that has positive agricultural impact.
Commenting on their activities, Dr Henry KwabenaKokofu, Executive Director, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said the Agency was ready to partner the Jospong Group and similar institutions to support climate actions through waste management and called on all and sundry to help keep the environment clean.
FROM JONATHAN DONKOR, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND (courtesy EPA)
