The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to collaborate with Zeal Environmental Technologies to efficiently operationalise Agency’s Laboratory in Takoradi to serve the petroleum industry.
The Executive Director of EPA, Dr. Henry Kwabena Kokofu, said the EPA has realised that Zeal Environmental Technologies has both the skill, knowledge and requisite machinery to deal with environmental protection issues particularly the waste management as per oil waste, water waste and other solid waste, hence the collaborations.
Dr. Kokofu disclosed this to the media when he visited Zeal Environmental Technologies, an indigenous oil and industrial waste management giant in the Western Region.
He said he was impressed having seen at first hand the facilities and skills of the company.
“I have read a bit about Zeal but having come down myself and then witnessing what is being done, I’m very much impressed,” he pointed out.
Dr. Kokofu stated that all is not lost on Ghana’s quest to have a resilient well-protected environment.
“We have shared some ideas and identified some gray areas where Zeal is already on top of issues. We have asked for collaborations with EPA office in Takoradi and the headquarters.”
He the two parties have arranged for a more technical meeting that we will operationalize the facility after entering into some agreement.
First on the agenda will be the Laboratory setup of EPA that was set-up for the Hydrocarbons/petrochemicals.
Zeal has expressed the interest to collaborate with EPA to help operationalize it and make good use of it.
The Executive Director said the discussions are good step because the EPA’s Laboratory is underutilized and Zeal has identified ways to help the Agency make it work efficiently.
He explained that Laboratory work is key and at the centre of waste management issues particularly such a highly technical area of oil waste.
The Executive Director who is on a Western Regional tour with an EPA delegation in line with its mandate to safeguard and protect the environment said more of such collaborations will follow.
He said Zeal Environmental Technology is a model example of Local Content success story that must be encouraged.
“Zeal is an example of the local company anticipated in the Local Participation and Local Content Law passed to advance. Regrettably, we don’t have much of such in the horizon, but Zeal has shown the way. A purely indigenous company with all that it takes, state-of-the-art technology and skilled Labour being all Ghanaians that provides waste management services in this petroleum industry.” he added.
Dr. Kokofu therefore encouraged local investors to help invest in the oil waste management sector to enable Ghana to completely take over the petrochemical industry.
The Chief Executive of Zeal Environmental Technologies, Kweku Ennin, who led the EPA delegation around the plant at Nyankrom in Shama welcomed the collaboration. He said Zeal is already collaborating with the EPA and other institutions like the University of Cape-Coast in some areas and it is committed to pushing the frontiers of oil and industrial waste management in Ghana.
Zeal in addition to its current underutilized capacity is even upgrading with the installation of a new incinerator with a capacity of 1000 kg and can run for 24 hours.
The incinerator which is expected to be operational before mid 2021 will help Zeal serve more clients in the petroleum sector, mining and industry at a lesser cost.
Items that can be incinerated include; hazardous waste, medical waste, chemical sacks, expired chemicals, narcotics, unwholesome foods confiscated by FDA, GRA, EPS and other regulatory bodies.
By: Dominic Hlordzie.
