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An eight million-pound World Bank Liquid Waste Treatment Plant at Tema has been abandoned due to the refusal of the authorities to make available an amount of five hundred Ghana Cedis (GH¢500) to replace a stolen armoured cable.

Theft of the cable occurred when some fishermen stormed the ponds, holding large sizes of tilapia that were being used for scientific experiment. The collapse of the plant has resulted in the entire liquid waste in Tema being discharged into the sea, and the two lagoons of Chemu and Sakumo respectively, leading to a looming epidemic.

Investigation this paper is conducting into the waste management system at Tema revealed that in the early nineties, under Urban IV Project, the World Bank awarded the construction of the central sewer system treatment plant in the industrial and port city of Tema to Messrs. SKANSKA from the Scandinavian region.

Under the project, three existing sewer pump stations were also to be rehabilitated. They are Pump Stations (PS) number 1, situated at Community 5, number 2 on the Meridian road, opposite Community 2 and number 3 located at the heavy industrial area, behind the Unilever plant.

Another station based inside the Tema port also connected to the main system was, however, in good working condition, so the World Bank funds was not applied there. The Chronicle established that in 1995, the Scandinavian company handed over the rehabilitated pumps and the main project to the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA).

Stations 1 and 2 at Community 5 and on the Meridian road respectively, including that of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), inside the Tema Port, directly feed the treatment plant at Community 3, closer to the Chemu lagoon.

The installation was designed to receive the effluent through a pond and connection to others in series and to the final maturation pond before discharging environmentally friendly water into the sea, through an outlet at the railway crossing on the Tema Sakumono beach road.

Information available has it that, managers of the plant introduced tilapia into the last seventh and maturation pond to test if quality of the treatment is not compromised.
The Fishermen, the paper gathered, without permission from any authority, started fishing in the pond.

Later in 1997, the Sakumo lagoon got flooded after days of torrential rains, spilled over to the project area and subsequently pushed the tilapia into other ponds. They grew large after feeding on faecal matter from other holdings, and this attracted a lot of fishermen who exhibited aggressive posture against the very managers of the plant.

In the heat of the supposed bumper catch, the marauding fishermen cut the armoured cable supplying power from the local substation and every effort to have that conductor, valued at less than GHc 500 replaced, proved futile. It was then decided that the period of the absence of power to the site should be used to desilt the facility.

The fishermen this time went on rampage, looting all cables available and those connected to the eight aerators, which have been installed in one of the ponds, resulting in the collapse of the World Bank treatment plant. Now the effluents from the sources are now channeled through a by-pass into the sea and the Sakumo lagoon.

Incidentally, the outlet from the plant into the sea was designed to stretch to about a kilometer from the beach, but for unexplained reason, it penetrated only about 50 meters and so the discharge, now untreated, returns into the lagoon.

As the paper intensified its investigations, it came to light that an Israeli company, ASA Technology, has shown interest in bringing life to the treatment plant with an additional value to produce fertilizer for sale to the Ministry of Agriculture, which will also bring income to the TMA.

However, the paper gathered that less attention is being given to the rehabilitation, probably because those handling it now do not appreciate the existence of the central sewer treatment plant or it is just an act of sabotage.

The Chronicle can also confirm that an amount in the region of GHc10,000 is what would be needed to reactivate the plant, now considered as a white elephant. GPHA is presently rehabilitating its own port, having engaged a company, ADFERG Civil Engineering Ghana Ltd for the job.

The Director General of GPHA, R.A.Y Anamoo, who confirmed this in an interview with this reporter, said that the authority was spending large sums of money on its system.

According to him, almost all the components for the project, with the exception of a few, have arrived and that he is optimistic that it would not be long to have the treatment plant ready, with the authority planning to assist PS 1 and 2 to function regularly.

He further stated that by the design, whatever good job is done at the port would be useless if the station’s number one remains unreliable. Mr. Anamoo said that the authority’s workers are mainly residing in Communities 2 and 5, hence the need to also extend a helping hand to PS1 at Community 5.

The Director of the Port, Jacob Adorkor, added that the ports authority has ensured that the one at the Fishing Harbour is always operational. According to him, his outfit will after completing the port of Tema project, move to Tema proper and first conduct feasibility studies on the problem facing the PS1, advance to the paradise beach to ensure that there is free flow of treated liquid waste into the sea without infringing on environmental issues.

Presently, due to blockade in sewer pipelines connecting the PS1 fed from communities 1,4,7,8, parts of 9 and the entire industrial area, homes, bedrooms and kitchens, where the lines are connected are experiencing flooding of liquid and solid human excreta.

Gutters and walkways at sites 14, 15, 17, 18, 19 and 20, all in Community 1, are visibly discharging the waste onto the streets and into the municipal drains through the former Ghana Textiles Manufacturing Company (GTMC) and finally into the Chemu lagoon.