Sanitation Ministry launches Bio-digester Manual

The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has launched, in Accra, a manual on the safe management, construction and installation of bio-digester toilets in Ghana.

It provides information on the design, sitting, installation and maintenance of the bio-digester, to be used by engineers, technicians, artisans, house owners, entrepreneurs and other institutions in the Water Access, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.

It would also assist the Ministry to provide appropriate templates and standards for the operation of all bio-digester toilets while serving as a guide to meet the World Bank-funded Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP).

Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, who launched the manual, said the United Nations, in 2013, declared access to basic sanitation as a human right, hence the Ministry’s commitment to ensuring those rights accrued to all Ghanaians.

She said the Ghana Statistical Service’s Population and Housing Census Report in February 2022 indicated that 59.3 per cent of households had toilets, while 17.7 per cent did not, and 23 per cent still used public facilities.

The Minister said through the GAMA-SWP project, 275,968 households in low-income areas in the Greater Accra Region have been provided with improved toilet facilities, which had contributed to the reduction in open defecation in the region.

Madam Dapaah said due to the success of the project an additional funding of 74 million dollars had been secured from the World Bank to replicate the programme in the Ashanti Region and that 30,000 households had been provided with toilets.

She said 98 per cent of the bio-digester toilets provided under the project were cheaper and easier to install, required minimal space for construction, and environmentally friendly, hence the choice for people in low-income communities.

Madam Dapaah commended Mr Kweku Anno of Biofilcom Ghana Limited and the members of the Ghana Institution of Engineers who designed and developed the bio-digester to improve the living conditions of people in low-income communities.

“The Ministry will embark on a learning session on the manual to begin the dissemination process on National Level Alliances Platform for stakeholders in sanitation projects,” she stated.

Mr George Asiedu, the Coordinator of GAMA-SWP, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the number of variants of the bio-digester had increased with different service providers providing designs and configuration of the technology, hence the need for standardisation through the manual.