Cargill inaugurates US$2.6m wastewater treatment plant

By Kingsley Webora TANKEH

Cargill Ghana Limited has inaugurated a state-of-the-art waste water treatment plant at its cocoa processing facility at Tema Free Zones Enclave.

The US$2.6 million investment, according to the company’s Managing Director, is a crucial addition to its operations, reinforcing Cargill’s commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship.

The new plant, which has the capacity to treat 150 cubic metres of water per day, was established in response to the urgent need for additional effluent storage capacity within the Free Zones Enclave. It will treat water used in cocoa processing, eliminating the environmental risks posed by untreated discharge and allowing the treated wastewater to be repurposed for non-potable uses.

Speaking at the inauguration event, Managing Director-Cargill Ghana Limited, Max Essoh Latte, underscored his outfit’s commitment to environmental stewardship – saying the plant forms part of the company’s aim of making all its processes sustainable to protect the environment.

“This was the vision that really drove us to build this new wastewater treatment plant,” he added.

“For us, being a responsible manufacturer is really important. We thought it made sense for us to take hold of this and take responsibility for the water that’s leaving our site,” noted Richard Adjei, Director-Plant Operations at Cargill Ghana.

The Tema Free Zones enclave uses a central pond for waste water, which is prone to failures. Pump breakdowns usually caused waste water to backflow into factories, causing a nuisance. Spillovers also occur sometimes, releasing poorly-treated water into the local environment.

In response to this, Cargill’s new wastewater treatment plant will ensure that water leaving its process is stripped of all toxins and harmful chemicals – reducing pressure on the enclave’s central pond.   The treated water will then be used for non-potable purposes within the facility, including irrigating lawns, washing the company’s extensive solar panels and cleaning floors.

This wastewater plant is the latest addition to the company’s sustainability investments. Cargill has also invested in a massive air filtering technology that purifies factory smoke and emits clean air into the atmosphere. It also boasts a large solar power installation.

Mr. Adjei noted that waste water treatment in a sense has zero financial impact. “But the payback is mostly for us being responsible citizens of this planet. Once we are part of this earth – and we have only one earth – everything we do should be more or less in a sustainable way.”

Cargill is an American multinational food corporation, providing food, ingredients, agricultural solutions and industrial products to nourish the world. Its cocoa processing plant in Ghana processes about 100,000 tonnes of cocoa beans annually into cocoa liquor, butter and powder for export.

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