Techiman starts community compost project

The Management of Techiman Abrono Organic Farming Project (ABOFAP), in collaboration with its local stakeholders, has started a Community Compost Project to meet the ever-increasing demand of environmental services in the Municipality.

At a one-day stakeholders meeting under the auspices of the Techiman Municipal Assembly, more than 40 farmers and other stakeholders who attended discussed how the proposed Project could effectively be implemented to ensure sustainable management of the municipality’s solid waste.

Representatives of Techiman Municipal Assembly, Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), various traditional leaders, Information Services Department (ISD), Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of Ghana Education Service, Department of Community Development, NADMO, Municipal Environmental Agency among others participated.

Nana Kwao Adams, Executive Director of ABOFAP, said the Project was being sponsored by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Global Involvement Facility and Small Grant Programme in collaboration with Rayleco Euviro Engineering Private Limited of India, with ABOFAP as implementers.

Nana Adams, the Twafohene of Forikrom in Techiman, said rapid urbanization had resulted in high population concentration in major Ghanaian cities.

That had resulted in pressure on urban infrastructure and services with the associated demand for environmental services like water and waste disposal.

Nana Adams said Techiman was a hub of business, saying its multi-cultural status coupled with the geographical location as a nodal town and commercially vibrant centre had created waste management challenges due to its increasing population.

“This situation therefore requires proper management to deal with the abundant waste produced and one of the ways to efficiently deal with the wastes is to convert the biodegradable component of the wastes into bio-fertilizer, thus saving the difficulty of securing landfill site for waste disposal,” Nana Adams said.

He expressed ABOFAP’s appreciation to chiefs and people of Kenten in Techiman for giving the Association free land to build the Plant for the Project, adding that initially its execution would be on ‘Pilot’ stage with solely voluntary labour.

Nana Adams said ABOFAP had met representatives from 10 towns within the Municipality to draw Action Plan to start the Pilot Project, saying it was agreed 500 houses would be given two sanitation refuse containers each for occupants to sort out organic and non-organic wastes.

Attendants would then be carting them away daily for disposal at the Plant Site for processing of the organic material into fertilizer while the non-organic waste could also be recycled for other purposes.

After one-year, ABOFAP would hand over administration of the project to the Techiman Municipal Assembly and the Community to continue.

Mr. Amoako Adama, Techiman Municipal Deputy Co-ordinating Director, commended Nana Adams and other architects of the Project for their foresight and assured that the Assembly would do everything possible to support it.

He said about 70 per cent of the Assembly’s Internally Generated Fund was spent on waste management and that the Project would enable the Assembly to use part of such monies to finance other projects in the Municipality. GNA