A water recycling and treatment plant built by Nestle Ghana Limited at the cost of GH¢14.1 million has been inaugurated at Tema.
The facility allows the company to re-use 30 per cent of the waste water which has been treated for non-core activities, thereby reducing the total factory water consumption by 10 per cent.
A Minister of State at the Presidency, Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, inaugurated the plant on behalf of the President, John Dramani Mahama, as part of activities to mark this year’s World Environment Day (WED).
In a speech read on his behalf, the President noted that the celebration of WED was a reminder of people’s responsibility towards the environment and an opportunity to consolidate the gains that had been made and what needed to be done to safeguard the environment.
The President said one of the major challenges today was climate change, which he described as a threatening environmental issue.
Scientific evidence, he added, was now overwhelming that climate change presented very serious global risks and demanded an urgent global response.
“Climate change threatens the basic elements of life for people around the world such as access to water, energy, food production, health, and use of land; the environment and wildlife are not exempted from this threat,” he said.
He said Ghana is already experiencing the adverse impacts of climate change such as recurrent drought and flood in some parts of the country with the associated loss of property and lives.
“As climate change continues to pose a threat to our survival, it is important for us, as a country, to take steps to reduce its impact and mitigate its effects on the citizenry,” the President said.
The President, who commended Nestle Ghana for its support to the environment, called on other manufacturing companies to emulate the shining example of the company in its prudent initiative in water use.
He said the government’s policy of friendly investment climate offered growth to small, medium and large-scale industries in the country, saying that it was a catalyst for manufacturing entities in the country to increase their production while taking advantage to conserve natural resources.
The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mr Mahama Ayariga, said it was quite evident that many people in society and the world at large did not attach importance to issues concerning the environment.
He called on industries to adopt appropriate technology in their activities, especially with respect to waste management.
The Managing Director of Nestle Ghana, Mrs Freda Duplan, in an address, said the plant served as a conservation mechanism in the use of water and also in discharged environmentally friendly waste water.
“Our environmental sustainability commitment involves substantial training and education of people inside and outside Nestle, as well as large investments in technology with lower environmental impacts,” she added.
She said as part of its Creating Shared Values (CSV), the sludge extracted from the recycling of the water was given out to farmers for free to serve as manure on their farms.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Jun 20, 2016 12am EDT / 9pm PDT / 5am BST / 6am CEST