The West African Centre For Global Environmental and Occupational Health (GEOHealth) yesterday.

The two-day hybrid conference, in partnership with the University of Ghana College of Health Sciences and Ministry of Health, was under the theme: “Electronic Waste Recycling Activities, Environment, and Human Health.”

It provided the platform for academia, policy-makers, government appointees, local authorities and other relevant stakeholders to exchange ideas on key policy implications of electronic waste recycling activities and its impact on the environment and human health.

The former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, in a keynote address decried the importation of obsolete electrical and electronic equipment from industrialised countries which continue to worsen the control and management of electronic-waste in the country.

According to him, e-waste had now become the fastest growing component of municipal solid waste stream generated in the country.

“Although the notorious Agbogbloshie no longer exist, one cannot by any stretch of imagination declare that the e-waste problem in Ghana has disappeared.

The sudden disappearance of the Agbogbloshie scrap yard certainly gives Ghana an opportunity to do things differently,” he stated.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said the promulgation of the Hazardous and Electronic Waste Act (Act 917) and the Hazardous, Electronic and Other Wastes, Control and Management Regulations (LI 2250) in 2016, was a step in the right direction to address the canker.

The law, he explained, provided for the establishment of a national e-waste recycling plant and the establishment of an advanced eco-levy to be paid by importers and manufacturers of electronic and electrical equipment.

“The levy is to cater for the costs of the collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal and recycling of e-waste,” he said.

The Head of the Presidential Vaccine Manufacturing Committee pointed out that current implementation of Act 917 under the law had resulted in the appointment of an international inspection company to conduct physical inspection of electronic and electrical goods before shipment into Ghana.

“The German government, through GIZ and KfW, is providing technical and financial support to create the necessary infrastructure and support systems needed for the effective management of e-waste in Ghana,” he added.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng commended GEOHealth for their numerous activities which provide solution for environmental and occupational health hazards, pledging Ghana’s continued collaboration with the Centre to tackle e-waste.

The Principal Investigator of GEOHealth and Provost of the College of Health Sciences, UG, Prof. Julius Fobil, said the conference was to enhance capacity for world-class scientific research and research training which addresses and inform key national,  regional,  environmental, occupational health priorities and policies.

He explained that over the last 6 years, the West Africa GEOHealth project succeeded in training six postdoctoral fellows, 14 PhDs (comprising eight males and six females) and over 92 M.Scs (comprising 46 females and 46 males) across the participating institutions in West and Central Africa region.

He said the research had increased multi-disciplinary understanding of the risks at the Agbogbloshie electronic waste site, using research findings to inform evidence-based implementation activities and policy options at the national, regional, and international levels.

BY ABIGAIL ANNOH & JESSEL LARTEY THERSON-COFIE