Tema delegation visits AVK Academy

June 18-19, a strong delegation of the city of Tema and Ghana Water visited the Danish city of Aarhus to seek inspiration on how to create efficient and sustainable water management.

In the two days, the delegation visited a state-of-the-art sewage water treatment plant, a modern water treatment plant in Aarhus, and a bunch of local Danish companies producing world-class technology for the water sector - amongst these, AVK in Galten.

Towards more sustainable water management
Ghana is currently investing largely in improving their national water supply. Still, challenges remain, such as a high non-revenue water level and poor operation and maintenance of the water infrastructure. Facing these challenges, the city of Tema and Ghana Water Limited Company have initiated a strategic sector cooperation (SSC) with the Municipality of Aarhus and Aarhus Vand A/S; the water utility of Aarhus. According to the mayor of Tema, Felix Mensah Nii Nang-La, the city has a serious problem with untreated wastewater contaminating their lakes and lagoons. Something that makes them look to Aarhus for inspiration:

"If you look at the rivers, lakes and lagoons in Aarhus, you don’t see any water highly polluted, because there is an efficient wastewater treatment in place. This is one of the areas where we are looking for ideas and inspiration on this visit to Aarhus and in our future cooperation.”

Aiming at better, more efficient supply and treatment, the delegation emphasises the importance of focusing on the current performance and steps of improvement: “Of course, we shall not be able to replicate exactly what we see in Aarhus, where operations are automated. But it is not about getting to what Aarhus Water is doing. It is about making our processes more efficient and improve our current performance.”, says Clifford Abdullah Braimah, Managing Director of Ghana Water.

As a starting point for the city of Tema, more efficient planning will help in cut costs, ad hoc maintenance and huge water losses – learn more about the use of these techniques here.

The visit was a great way to show the companies’ newest technologies and innovations, but also a great way for Denmark to really pioneer Danish solutions to water supply and treatment. As Global Brand Manager of AVK, Michael Ramlau Hansen, puts it:

"This visit was brilliant, because there was a lot of good questions. These were really people from the operation that know, what they are talking about. They are facing some challenges, we have some solutions, and that makes a perfect match.”

The collaboration is expected to lead to an agreement about a three-year project, which in the end should develop into a model when it comes to water supply and treatment – one that, hopefully, can be rolled out from Tema to the rest of Ghana.

The visit by the delegation from the city of Tema and Ghana Water to their partners in Aarhus, Aarhus municipality and Aarhus Vand, forms part of the Strategic Sector Cooperation supported by Danida and facilitated by the Embassy of Denmark in Accra.