Mankranso (Ash), March 23, GNA - A Canadian Company, CINECIEX, experts in waste management, is to build a 135,350-dollar plant that will turn waste into electricity for three assemblies in Ashanti. The plant, which would be cited possibly at Anhwiankwanta in the Amansie East District, will serve the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), the Amansie East District Assembly and the Obuasi Municipal Assembly.
Mr Abraham Dwumah Odoom, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, who disclosed this, said the project would beside helping to solve the waste problems of the assemblies, would also be expected to provide electricity to them. He was addressing the first quarterly meeting of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives in the Ashanti Region for the year at Mankranso in the Ahafo-Ano South District on Wednesday.
Throwing more light on the project, Mr Albert Poku-Bonsu, Country Representative of CINECIEX explained that a Memorandum of Understanding had already been signed between Canada and the KMA on the project. What was left, he said, was the signing of the final agreement, which he hoped would be soon to pave the way for work on the project to commence, adding that, work on the project would take not more than nine months to complete. Mr Poku-Bonsu said the company would operate the plant, which would be on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis for 15 years and then hand it over to the government, during which time competent Ghanaian staff would have been trained to take over. The Volta River Authority (VRA), he said, was expected to buy the about 52.2 mega watts of electricity to be generated from the about 16,000 tons of garbage to serve about 1,500 households.
Mr Odoom told the MCEs, MUCEs and DCEs that the ministry was working out plans to assist the assemblies to access loans from the Prudential Bank to purchase tractors and other equipment for agriculture and the general improvement of infrastructure in the districts. He stressed the need for the assemblies to work in close collaboration with the traditional authorities in the development of the districts in view of the important role they play in this direction. To this end therefore, the Deputy Minister said his ministry was thinking of establishing what he called a "Royal College" to train traditional authorities on the decentralisation programme to enable them participate effectively in local administration.
