Expansion work progresses at Barekese

The Board of Directors at the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has expressed appreciation at the progress of rehabilitation and expansion works at the Barekese and Owabi Headworks which supply pipe-borne water to the Kumasi metropolis and its environs.
The GWCL was currently embarking on rehabilitation and expansion works at the Barekese and Owabi headworks so as to be able to increase the supply of pipe-borne water to the Kumasi metropolis.
The Board Chairman, Mr A. R. Musah, who led a team of board members to inspect progress of work at the two headworks at the weekend, expressed appreciation with the quality of work.
The visit was to enable them acquaint themselves with work so far done on the ongoing rehabilitation and expansion project.
The project which was more than 30 percent complete is being funded by the government at a cost of Euros 37,999,870.
The Kumasi metropolis would be supplied with 27million gallons of water per day upon the completion of the project in October 2009.
The Barekese Headworks currently has capacity to produce 18million gallons of water per day whiles that of Owabi has capacity to produce three million.
However the two headworks are unable to produce at their full capacity because of obsolete machinery.
The expansion works was expected to increase the capacity of Barekese by an additional six million gallons thereby producing 24million gallons per day.
The Board chairman of GWCL expressed satisfaction with the work done so far and expressed the hope that it would be completed on schedule.
Members of the board that accompanied the chairman were Mr E. Adjei Boye, Ms Susana Mensah, Mr R. Obiri Yeboah, Mr Kwaku Amoa Gyarteng, Mr P. M. A. Pecku. Others were the Deputy Managing Director of the GWCL Mr Kwaku Botwe, Mr Fred Lokko, Ashanti Regional Chief Manager and the project consultant, Mr Anthony Amankwah.
The project is being executed by Taysec Construction Company.

Stray cow causes accident in Kumasi

The reason why stray animals should not be allowed on the street was given meaning on Tuesday morning as a stray cow crashed into a taxi cab on the Asokwa-Baba Yara Sports Stadium road in Kumasi.
The accident resulted in injury to the driver of the taxi cab and four passengers of the vehicle.
The taxi cab, a Kia Pride with registration number AW 1397 Y was also badly damaged as the front and rear windscreens were smashed together with the bonnet and roof of the vehicle.
The fat cow also died on the spot.
Eyewitness said the cow was being followed by a shepherd boy on the shoulders of the road at about 6am when all of a sudden it jumped on to the road and crashed into the oncoming car.
The car hit the animal head on and lifted it over the roof.
The shepherd boy was said to have taken to his heels immediately after the accident as the driver who was only indentified as Alex also tried to pursue him but was unsuccessful in arresting him.
The matter was later reported to the Asokwa Police.

Another fuel tanker in accident

A fuel tanker was on Monday night involved in an accident which resulted in the tanker catching fire at Asokwa near the Mckweon Restaurant on the Asokwa-Baba Yara Sports Stadium road.
Four vehicles, which had been parked by the road side were burnt together with the tanker.
There were no casualties as the tanker driver escaped unhurt from the vehicle before it burst into flames.
This brought to three the number of tanker trucks which had been involved in an accident and catching fire in the Ashanti region in the last two weeks.
The first was at Adum in Kumasi which claimed three lives and the second was at Atwedie in the Asante Akyim South District which resulted in injury to four persons including a policeman and a fireman.
The cause of this latest incident was not clear but it was believed a break failure might have caused the accident.
The vehicle with registration number AS 7401 F veered off the road and landed in a gutter just in front of the Mckweon Restaurant at Asokwa.
The incident happened about 200 metres away from the Engas Filling Station, which exploded about a year ago claiming some lives including the owner of the station.
Eyewitnesses said the vehicle burst into flames shortly after the driver had escaped from it after the accident.
They said thick black smoke drifted into the evening skies, as frightened residents rushed out of their homes to escape to safe areas. Fire fighters had a difficult task controlling the blaze, and had to spend about two hours before bringing the situation under control. The accident was said to have happened a few minutes after 8pm and the fire started afterwards as the fuel drifted into the drains with the fire running through the drains from where the tanker fell.
The fire caused destruction to telephone and electricity cables.

EIA report on energy project ready

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) scoping report had been submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) so as to help pave the way for the construction of the plant to generate between 30 and 52 megawatts of electricity from garbage in Kumasi.
The almost US$136 million project is expected to generate energy from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly’s (KMA’s) landfill site at Oti to serve the Kumasi metropolis, depending on the volume of waste supplied to the landfill site per day.
The gas from the waste materials will be used to generate energy.
Cinergex Solutions is the sole financier of the project, excluding Value Added Tax (VAT), and is expected to use 14 months to construct the plant, when actual construction work begins.
The project is to be on a build-operate-and-transfer (BOT) basis and as a result Cinergex has consequently signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The electricity produced by the waste-to-energy plant will supplement the ECG’s power supply from the Volta River Authority (VRA) for the Kumasi metropolis.
Mr Anthony Mensah, Director of Waste Management at the KMA who was responding to a question on the progress of work on the project in an interview with the Daily Graphic said the financiers of the project have gathered and analysed all relevant information on the proposed undertaking to determine the likely consequences if the undertaking was implemented and has forwarded it to the EPA.
He said the EPA which was currently reviewing the report was expected to issue a provisional permit to pave way for constructional works on the project.
Asked why the EPA permit had delayed as of now, Mr Mensah said the financiers initially assumed that the EPA permit covering the landfill site would have covered the plant only for them to realise later that they needed a whole new permit for the plant.
He said consultants have been commissioned to prepare the two phases of environmental impact assessment reports, that of the scoping and final reports.
He said the scoping report was ready and had been submitted to the EPA for review leading to the issuance of a provisional permit after which the final report would be sent for the final permit.
Mr Mensah said his understanding was that once the provisional permit was issued, the financiers of the project would release funds for the purchase of the components of the plant for onward shipment to Ghana from the United States of America (USA) and Canada respectively.
He said the plant itself entails a lot of pre-fabricated components which would be mounted on a concrete sub structure.
The Waste Management Director said the financiers have since engaged a surveyor to assess where the plant would be mounted at the land fill site.
President John Agyekum Kufuor performed the sod-cutting ceremony at the project site in May 2007. Prior to that, the government, through the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, and the KMA signed a contract with the contractors, Cinergex Solutions Limited from Canada in November 2006 for the construction of the plant.
The energy to be generated by the plant would depend greatly on the volume of waste supply to the landfill site and, according to experts, 500 tonnes of waste per day will generate 12 megawatts of electricity, 1,000 tonnes will produce between 30 and 52 megawatts of power, while 1,600 tonnes of waste per day will produce a maximum of 60 megawatts, which happens to be the maximum capacity of the plant.
The Kumasi metropolis currently generates about 1,200 tonnes of waste per day.
It is the desire of the KMA to liaise with other assemblies nearby to supplement and complement its waste requirements so that the plant could operate at full capacity.
The issue of waste collection and sanitation in general had been a major challenge for local authorities and that it was good news that energy could now be generated from waste in Ghana.