The European Union (EU) has offered to assist five rubber waste collectors in Ghana with a grant of €15,000 to improve their waste management services.
The grant, Development Diaries understands, is under the European Union-funded waste management services project in the Kumasi Metropolis.
Each of the five would receive an amount of €3,000 to employ others for the collection business to better their living standards.
SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
The project falls under the Holistic Reinforcement For Sustainable Development (HORESD) project involving Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Mancomunitat de la Ribera Alta (MANRA), Spain, and the Chamber of Praia, Cape Verde.
According to the Project Coordinator, Joshua Tettey-Nortey, the five waste collectors would be selected from a 20-member group that would be taken through a special orientation course in waste collection.
He said the development was expected to strengthen Kumasi’s capacity to provide public services, giving priority to an integrated management system of solid urban waste to boost the circular economy in Kumasi.
As part of the project, the EU would provide the KMA with seven compactor trucks, thousands of containers, pilot recycle and composting plants as well as transfer of technical know-how and managing source-separate waste.
Data from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reveals that with rapid global population growth and urbanisation, annual waste generation is expected to increase by 73 percent from 2020 levels to 3.88 billion tonnes in 2050.
In Ghana, about 12,710 tonnes of solid waste is generated every day, with only ten percent collected and disposed of properly.
Photo source: David Bacon
