Ghana’s new minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and innovation (MESTI), Honorable. Dr. Kwaku Afriyie has paid a working visit to the Hybrid Waste to Energy project site in the Ashanti Region as part of its engagement with WASCAL.
In an interaction with the WASCAL team, led by the 2nd deputy chairman of WASCAL governing board, Dr. Francis Agyenim, the minister expressed delight at the progress of the project and the objectives that it will eventually fulfil. He was grateful to the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), through Forschungszentrum Jülich, for the funding of the project.
The minister, who by his position, also serves as the deputy chairman of the WASCAL Ministerial Council, assured WASCAL of the ministry’s support in ensuring a successful completion of the pilot phase of the project and beyond. He was also upbeat about the job creation prospects for the beneficiary communities within the green electricity space.
Also present at the tour were the WASCAL Executive Director, Dr. Moumini Savadogo, Director of CSIR-Ghana, Professor Victor Agyemang, and the Municipal Chief Executive of Atwima Nyabiagya, in the Ashanti Region Honorable Michael Awuku.
The Hybrid Waste to Energy project is a contributing project to Ghana’s Climate Change mitigation strategy. The 5.8million euro project by the German Government in collaboration with the Ghana Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation coordinated by WASCAL in Ghana and Rostock University in Germany.
When completed, the project will not only improve sanitation by converting the ever-increasing municipal solid waste into energy for productive uses and contribute to sustainable industrial development, but also create business models for successful replication and propagation in ten other regions in Ghana.