The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Friday, October 9, 2020, cut a sod for the construction of a solid waste treatment plant at Kperisi, a community in the Wa municipality of the Upper West Region.
The facility, which is a public-private partnership between government and the Jospong Group, upon completion will receive, sort, and process waste in the municipality and its environs.
It will also create 75 jobs during construction and over 200 direct and indirect jobs when completed.
Available records indicate that the Wa municipality generates over 500 tones of waste every day.
Speaking at a durbar of chiefs and people of the Kperisi traditional area ahead of the sod cutting, President Akufo-Addo said the construction of the waste plant is in line with the government’s coordinated socio-economic policies aimed at ensuring a clean Ghana.
“This project that we are doing here is critical for the sanitation of our country. We should have a country that is clean. My hope and objective is that Ghana will be known as the cleanest country in the African continent”.
He called on the people to cooperate with the contractor to ensure the completion of the project on schedule.
The Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah commended the Jospong Group for zooming the vision of the President and taking the advantage of collaborating with the government in the management of waste in the country.
She said the sod cutting for the Kperisi waste plant is the 9th out of a total of 15 plants earmarked to be constructed in the country.
The Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies, Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, noted that, upon completion, the plant will provide several direct and indirect jobs to the youth in the region.
He noted that so far, sod-cutting has been performed for 10 solid waste plants nationwide.
He commended the Paramount Chief of Kperisi Traditional Area, Naa Mahama Seidu II, and the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Wa Municipal Assembly for making available land for the project.
“We are beginning work immediately the President cuts the sod, and the facility would be completed within four months,” he said.
For his part, the Paramount Chief of Kperisi Traditional Area, Naa Mahama Seidu II, expressed appreciation to President Akufo-Addo for ensuring that his community benefits from the share of the national cake.
He appealed to the President to help improve electrification in his community, adding that a “cultural theatre in my community will help unearth loads of talents among the youth in the creative arts space.”
In his welcome address, the Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, applauded the President for creating the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.
A case, he indicated, was the construction of solid waste treatment facilities across the country by Zoomlion in collaboration with the government.
According to him, the facility, when completed, will inure to the benefit of the people of Upper West.