Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo has announced government’s support for Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited (SSGL), a subsidiary of Jospong Group of Companies, to enable the company expand and replicate its waste treatment plants across the country.

According to him, government has been impressed with SSGL’s operations and its handling of both faecal matter and wastewater at its two treatment plants at Korle Gonno, Accra.

“Government will provide you with funds to expand and replicate your faecal and waste water treatment plants across the whole of the country. Without money you can’t sustain this kind of project,” he stated.

Mr Osafo-Maafo made this disclosure when he paid a familiarisation tour of SSGL’s two waste treatment facilities—Lavender Hill Faecal Waste Treatment Plant and Mudor Waste Water Treatment Plant in Accra on Thursday.

Government support for this kind of project, he said, should not be a one-off event, but must be continuous to help sustain such companies, indicating that Tema, in particular, was in dire need of such waste treatment facilities.

The senior minister commended the Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies, Dr Joseph Siaw-Agyapong, who was present during the former’s visit, for his visionary leadership.

The Managing Director (MD) of SSGL, Haidar Said, took the minister on a tour of the two treatment plants. At the Lavender Hill faecal treatment plant, the minister familiarised himself with facilities including the Treatment Workshop, Regulating Tank, Anoxic Generating Room among others.

While at the Mudor Waste Water treatment plant, Osafo-Maafo was briefed on how facilities such as the Sludge Thickener and the Drying bed work.

Earlier, briefing a cross-section of journalists, the General Manager (GM) of SSGL, Ing. Mrs Florence Cobbold, said her outfit was managing both the Lavender Faecal and the Mudor Waste Water Treatment Plants.

According to her, the faecal plant receives faecal matter from sceptic tanks of homes of residents in Accra.

This, she said, goes through a number of processes including screening, which generates by-products like gas and charcoal. However, both were at the experimental stage.

On the Mudor Wastewater Treatment Plant, she explained that it receives sewerage from some homes in Accra and "also goes through a number of processes”.

Ing. Cobbold stressed that through her outfit’s efforts, the foul smell that at the Lavender Hill area has been considerably reduced.

Additionally, she indicated that SSGL was also managing the Kotoku Faecal Treatment Plant which received an average of 200 trucks of faecal matter on a daily basis.

She, however, revealed that her company was constructing faecal plants in Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale and both faecal and wastewater treatment facilities in Tema.

For his part, the MD of SSGL, Haidar Said, revealed that as a result of his company’s capability, they had received a grant of 200,000 Euros from the European Union (EU) to generate liquid fertiliser.