21 December 2011, Accra, Ghana – In the context of the GEF/UNDP/UNITAR/EPA-Ghana Project on Capacity Building for the Elimination of PCBs in Ghana, a Project Steering Committee (PSC) was held in Accra on 21 December 2011. The Committee reviewed the project status report, agreed on the 2012 Road Map, and acknowledged the progress made on the PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) inventory.

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), a major stakeholder, reaffirmed its commitment to the Project. ECG committed to avail both human and financial resources to the project and ensure that the PCB inventory activities are completed in time. Some decommissioned capacitors have already been secured and will soon be transported to the central storage facility in TEMA. The awareness raising campaign will be stepped up in 2012 and an inventory dissemination workshop will be held back-to-back with the next PSC in March/April 2012.

The expectations are high and the tasks are challenging, but 2012 is planned to be a year when Ghana scores a first in the West African region by shipping out the first consignment of its PCB wastes to a country with facilities to destroy them in an environmentally sound manner.