‘Lavenda Hill will be closed down this year’

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Alhaji Collins Dauda has disclosed that Lavenda Hill will be no more by the end of 2016.

This, he said, would be possible upon the completion of the two fecal treatment plants being constructed by the government, in partnership with Juspong Group of Companies under the Private Partnership Agreement (PPP).

The Minister revealed this yesterday after inspecting the said projects -the Accra Compost & Recycling Plant (ACARP) and the Mudor Treatment Plant situated at Ajen Kotoku and Mudor in the Ga West Municipality and the Accra Metropolis respectively.

The ACARP project and Mudor Treatment Plant project are expected to begin full operation by the end of February and August 2016 and have the capacity to treat 60 and 200 trucks of fecal matter respectively in a day.

The two projects combined are worth $44million, according to the Minister, in an interaction with journalists after the inspection exercise, saying it was being funded under the PPP with Juspong Group of Companies as the private partners and on their completion – ‘Lavenda Hill’ would no more exist by the end of 2016.

He explained that the total number of trucks that discharge untreated fecal waste into the ocean directly, via ‘Lavenda Hill’ daily is 200 noting that with the completion of ARCARP and Mudor Treatment Plant projects which have the capacity to treat 60 and 200 trucks of fecal matter daily –one can confidently declare that Lavenda Hill would be no more.

“…So what it means is that the two plants together can take 260 trucks, so if Lavenda Hill is taking 200 hundred trucks a day, as of today, it means that if you complete the two projects, Lavenda Hill will be no more and we’ll still have excess capacity to address liquid waste discharged in other parts of Accra,” Alhaji Collins Dauda told journalists.

He said the interventions to properly manage fecal waste would not be limited to Accra and Tema, indicating that there would be replications nationwide, as government does not support the continuous discharge of such waste into the ocean. Government, he indicated, “abhors the discharge of raw liquid waste into our oceans,” stating emphatically that: “by the end of 2016 Lavenda Hill would be no more.”

The Managing Director of ACARP, Dr. Richard Amponsah, said the construction of the plants was a direct response to the unacceptable and untenable practice of discharging fecal matter in the ocean at the Lavenda Hill.

He said the plant, when completed, would receive process and treat 1000m3 truck of liquid waste a day from the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, curbing the continuous discharge of fecal waste into the ocean.

He told journalists at the ACARP project site that the project would be fully operational by the end of February and it would assist in addressing a lot of other sanitary related diseases such as cholera, dysentery etc.

The integrated facility he indicated was designed to host treatments plants that include: Sorting Plant, Composting Plant, Plastic recycling, Fecal waste treatment, Refuse Derived Fuels (RDF) productions, Waste to Energy (Biogas and Thermal derived energy); and a residual section.