Volta Region Receives a Modern Medical Waste Treatment Facility

In collaboration with the Government of Ghana (GOG), the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC) inaugurated a multi-million dollar medical waste treatment facility at Akrofu-Agorve in the Ho Municipality of the Volta Region. It is the second of fourteen such facilities to be established in the United States.

In his 2021 State Of the Nation Address (SONA), President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo pledged to construct sixteen (16) Integrated Recycling and Composting Plants (IRECOP) and fourteen (14) Medical Waste Treatment (MWT) facilities throughout the country. The Volta Region is fortunate to have access to two (2) unconventional facilities, as the ongoing IRECOP project is approximately eighty percent (80%) complete.

The commissioning of the MTW facility was a partial realisation of the President's vision to promote appropriate waste management and sanitation throughout the nation. The facility is capable of accumulating, treating, and disposing of hazardous components of healthcare waste, such as used syringes, bloodstained materials, pathological waste, and Covid-19 waste. Additionally, it will process the refuse from vaccination exercises.

Utilising a non-incinerating technique, the apparatus ensures that no pollutants are released into the atmosphere to destabilise the ecosystem's environmental health and safety.

In addition to serving the main medical centres in the Ho Municipality, the facility will benefit all healthcare facilities, including hospitals and clinics, in the region's eighteen (18) districts and surrounding areas. It is equipped with a cold room for refuse storage and specialised waste trucks for transporting medical waste from various health facilities to the treatment plant.

The Deputy Minister for Health (MOH), the Honourable Mahama Asei Seini, emphasised the importance of a culture of continuous maintenance and audit of the facility in order for it to serve its intended purpose. According to him, the significance that the government placed on the construction of the facility could not be overstated, and the MOH would do everything possible through policy directives to ensure that all health facilities in the region utilised the facility.

Mr. Haidar Said, Executive Director of the Environmental and Sanitation Processing Cluster (E&S Processing Cluster) at the JGC, acknowledged and praised the President for his unwavering support and dedication to the private sector as a partner in national development. He disclosed that the treatment facility is equipped with cutting-edge microwave technology that enables the plant to process an average of 10,000 kilogrammes or 10 tonnes of hazardous medical refuse per day.

According to the Executive Director, the equipment has the added benefit of recycling the treated refuse to increase its value and reduce the amount of waste that would otherwise end up on land-field sites. Mr. Said was also appreciative to the government and all other health sector stakeholders for their contribution to the successful completion of this vital facility for the Volta Region.

The Minister for the Volta Region, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, thanked the Jospong Group for its collaboration with the government, which led to the construction of the building. According to him, the facility provided enormous benefits. He noted that, in addition to providing employment opportunities for the region's unemployed youth, the waste treatment plant would enable health facilities in the region to dispose of their hazardous waste effectively and efficiently, ensuring the safety of the workers and the communities they served.

Madam Patricia Dovie-Sampson, an official of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, described the opening of the facility as a step in the correct direction. She reiterated that the Ministry remained committed to collaborating with all relevant parties to ensure that the vision of providing safe water and improved sanitation services to all was realised.

Speaking on behalf of the Director-General (DG) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kumah Aboagye, and the Acting Regional Director of the GHS, Dr Senanu Kwesi Dzokoto, the Deputy Director in charge of Administration at the Regional Health Directorate, Mr Edward Kaba, stated that the construction and completion of the ultra-modern waste management and treatment plant was good news for all stakeholders in the health sector.

According to him, one of the greatest challenges confronting the health sector was the disposal of medical waste. He was sanguine that the facility would, among other things, allow hospitals and other health facilities to focus on their primary mission of providing the public with high-quality healthcare, rather than on waste management.

Dr. John Tampouri, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Ho Teaching Hospital, praised the President for the ongoing construction of IRECOP and the conclusion of the medical waste treatment facility. The significance of a facility such as the medical waste treatment plant could not be overstated, he said, adding that such a facility must be recognised in the region.

Dr. Philip Bannor, the Registrar in command of the Health Facilities Regulatory Authority (HeFRA), expressed his organization's eagerness to collaborate with health facilities across the nation to ensure effective regulation and compliance with all opportunities, status, and policies.

In his opening remarks, the Ho Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), the Honourable Divine Bossman, stated that the plant's commissioning demonstrated the government's unwavering commitment to environmental sustainability and public health among the populace. According to him, the Medical Waste Treatment facility would also be an essential element in achieving the Assembly's objective of making Ho, the regional capital of Ghana, the oxygen city.

Mamaga Akua Sabea Nyabor VII, the Paramount Queen Mother of the Akrofu Traditional Area, who presided over the event, urged the government to immediately address the deplorable condition of the roads in the region. According to her, the current deplorable condition of the roads in the traditional area, some of which lead to the waste treatment plants at Akrofu-Agorve, is nothing to write home about, and the situation could have far-reaching vehicle maintenance cost implications for the managers of the facilities and owners of vehicles that would transport waste to the processing site.

General Manager of Medical Waste Services Limited, the facility's operators, Ing. Senam Tengey told our news team in an interview that his company would provide training to healthcare staff in the region to enable them to do proper segregation of all hazardous and non-hazardous waste to pave the way for the specialised trucks to move from one facility to the next to collect and transport all hazardous healthcare waste to the centralised waste treatment facility.

The Medical Waste Treatment facility is anticipated to generate over two hundred (200) direct and indirect jobs for the local population.