Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Ghana through environmental sanitation

The NDF Board has approved a EUR 2.5 million grant to a project that will support environmental improvements in Greater Accra area through appropriate treatment of septage and faecal sludge. The investments in sustainable sanitation operations will also reduce the emissions of GHGs resulting from poor management of septic sludge and nightsoil.

The sanitation situation in Greater Accra area is highly unsatisfactory. With a rapid growing population of around 3.5 million the metropolitan area has seen rapid decline in the treatment of septage (from septic tanks) and nightsoil sludge (from public toilets and bucket latrines). While the volumes of septage/nightsoil evidenced by the number of trips of cesspit-emptier trucks to discharging points have increased, the number of functioning treatment facilities have decreased with the decommissioning of a number while others have fallen into disrepair and/or disuse. The piped sewerage system in Accra has very limited coverage and a big number of households and public facilities use septic tanks and bucket latrines for their sanitation. The septage and nightsoil are collected by private operators and are discharged partly to an overloaded sewage treatment plant and partly to more or less temporary dumps and pits from where the stuff flows to rivers, channels and the sea causing serious environmental problems and forming sources of methane emissions.

The NDF support is linked to the World Bank financed Second Urban Environmental Sanitation Project (UESP II). The NDF support will help finance construction of two septage treatment facilities with biogas collection and usage systems. Each facility would have a capacity of 500 m³ of sludge per day. The two facilities will contribute to improving health and sanitary conditions and lead to around 200,000 tCO2_e emission reductions over the next 25 years.