We’ve initiated several projects in environment, science, technology & innovation sector - Minister

The Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation Dr. Kwaku Afriyie has outlined several projects he says the government has embarked on.

Taking his turn at the Minister’s Press Briefing organised by the Ministry of Information, he said the Minister has embarked on several projects.

The Minister said the government has established the Ghana National Research Fund, which will promote applied research and commercialization, provide support including the development of infrastructure for research and innovation and development of support programme for research support ecosystem.

He announced that the government is constructing an industrial Foundry and Machine Tooling Centre, which will help the nation in designing and fabrication of Agricultural tools and equipment.

According to him, the government has piloted the construction of Waste to Energy plants at Gyankobaa Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti Region.

He announced that three (3) Seismic Equipment have been procured and installed at all candidate sites and are currently transmitting data to the Ghana Geological Survey’s national data centre to help in developing Nuclear Power for Reliable Energy.

On the issue of Covid-19, he said the government has established a laboratory for testing and research of Covid-19 and other infectious diseases.

The lab has three research and diagnostic laboratories, Covid-19 testing laboratory, Pharmaceutical laboratory and Immunology and Immunology laboratory.

The centre has a testing capacity of 200 samples per day.

Aside from these projects, work is ongoing on the construction of an Electronic waste handover centre.

The centre will provide a sound collection, dismantling, recycling, and disposal of E-waste, to reduce damage to the environment and human health.

Also, 399 hectares of riparian vegetation along the river banks of the Kulpung, Sissili, White and Red Volta Rivers and their tributaries have been established to protect our water bodies.

"To improve the environment, 24 women-led Agro-processing facilities were constructed with 1,260 direct beneficiaries. 146 boreholes were also constructed in 50 communities in Northern Ghana,” he added.

He said the government is increasing community resilience through water resources management and livelihood improvement in 50 communities in Northern Ghana. This has led to the rehabilitation of 15 dams in 10 communities in 4 Northern Regions (Northern, Upper West, Upper East and Savannah).