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Formulate policy to manage waste BAG urges government

The Biogas Association of Ghana (BAG) has called on the government to formulate a national policy to regulate the disposal of feacal waste in the country.

The Vice President of the Association, Mr Daniel Osei-Bonsu in an interview with support from stated that a national policy would help eliminate unhygienic ways of disposing feacal waste and usher in modern technologies that were safer and hygienic. 

The Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are supporting the media advocacy of BAG.

Mr Osei-Bonsu said the government must act with urgency to phase out the use of septic tanks and rather adopt bio-digesters and other on-site solid waste treatment systems that were presently available in the country. 

Mr Osei-Bonsu explained that the use of septic tanks must be a source of concern to the government because the country did not have the capacity to treat all the raw sewage that were dislodged from homes and other toilet facilities. 

“Bio-digesters are on-site treatment units so they don’t require dislodging of raw sewage but with the use of septic tanks, we are all engaging in open defecation because most people don’t even know where their feacal waste is finally disposed,” he said.

The Vice President of the group further stated that due to the unavailability of off-site treatment facilities in the country, most of the sewage dislodged from toilet facilities ended up in water bodies. 

He added that although some private waste management companies had built some treatment plants for that purpose, they were still in short number and could not cater for the entire country. 

“They have not been able to reach every district and they don’t have treatment facilities in all the districts,” Mr Osei-Bonsu noted. 

He said small-scale bio-digesters that convert biodegradable waste from plants and animals into biogas should be constructed across the country, adding that “even the by-products could be harnessed for domestic use.”

To make it widespread, Mr Osei-Bonsu said the Association required government assistance to promote the technology across the country. 

He explained that “we want bio-digester to be installed in place of septic tanks in all homes and toilet facilities because of the enormous benefits that could be derived from it aside from helping to keep the country clean, because most of the waste end up in water bodies which causes all the communicable disease we often encounter.”

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