2m students to be trained in bio-digester installation

 About 2 million stu­dents of vocational and technical universities in the country are to be engaged by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources in the construc­tion and installation of bio-di­gester toilets for households.

This is in line with the efforts of the government to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 and more important­ly give a bright future to the students in the construction industry.

Subsequently, the Ministry, through the Greater Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan Assem­blies (GAMA/GKMA) project, has partnered with the Faculty of Built and Natural Environ­ment of the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) to train the students in the construction and installation of the bio-digester toilets.

The World Bank-funded project, which started in 2015, is aimed at increasing access to im­proved sanitation and improved water supply with emphasis on low income communities and to strengthen management of environmental sanitation in those areas.

The Project Coordinator, Mr George Asiedu, explained that the ministry would soon start accrediting artisans and institu­tions into the construction of bio-digester to ensure that the highest environmental standards were maintained.

He told the students they would each be awarded a cer­tificate for participating in the training programme to serve as the basis for engaging them on the nationwide scale-up of the project towards increasing access to improved household toilets to meet the SDG 6.

Mr Asiedu mentioned that the ministry, through GAMA/ GKMA project, had drawn a plan to conduct hands-on and practical training of artisans, technicians and construction and engineering schools in the south­ern, middle and northern belts of the country on the contents of the bio-digester construction manual.

He said the project had initiat­ed procurement processes to set up treatment plants for dealing with the waste from the bio-di­gesters when they were emptied.

Mrs Charlotte Adjei Marfo, Capacity Building and Training Coordinator of the GAMA proj­ect of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, indicated the ministry was poised to bring young professionals into the sanitation sector by creating businesses for them.

The ministry, she said had collaborated with the Technical and Vocational Education Train­ing (TVET) institutions and the three schools of hygiene in the country (in Accra, Ho and Ta­male) to involve the students in the construction of the bio-di­gester toilets.

She observed that 17.7 per cent of Ghanaians did not have access to a toilet facility while 23 per cent still used public toilets, with 59.3 per cent households using toilet “and we decided to move into the schools to train students to provide quality ser­vice in the construction of the toilets.”

Dr Kofi Owusu, Head of the Faculty of Built and Natural Environment of KsTU, said 550 of the students of his institution would benefit from the training and because the bio-digester toi­let was new, the university would include it in syllables of voca­tional and technical universities.

He said the KsTU would monitor the project to ensure that the trained students would be engaged by the ministry and so encouraged the students to take advantage of the project to brighten their future.

The parent GAMA Sani­tation and Wa­ter Project was successfully im­plemented from August 2014 to December 2020 with about 240,212 people having access to improved household toilets.

In Kumasi (GKMA), the proj­ect is being implemented in eight Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies, including Asokwa, Oforikrom, Old Tafo, Suame, Kwadaso and the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly (AMMA).

Under the project, 30,000 household toilet facilities would be provided for people of low-income status in the GKMA, while about 5,000 households would also get connected to water supply support.

So far about 7,086 household toilet facilities have been pro­vided since the implementation of the project in Kumasi a year ago.

Similarly, it has awarded contracts to 129 contractors to provide 120 schools with toilet facilities, which project took off early this March and expected to be completed in this October.

The bio-digester toilet system is the main containment technol­ogy provided under the project for beneficiary households.

It works by rapidly break­ing down faecal matter with the assistance of micro- and macro-organisms and bulking materials such as coconut coir and wood chips.

FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI