France, Cross River Collaborate on Waste To Electricity Project(Photos)
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Category: Cross River News
In pursuance of the waste to energy policy of the Governor Ben Ayade-led
administration, the Cross State Government has struck a partnership with the
French government to convert its wastes to electricity.
Disclosing
the collaboration during a presentation to Governor Ayade in his conference
room, leader of the team, Mr. Ayodeji Okele, who is also the Managing
Director, Asaju Energy, in company of a consortium of French companies
comprising Gilles Bacquet, GB Consult and Services; Laurent Lambs, Project
Manager Serge Experts, said they were in Calabar to conduct a feasibility
studies on the waste management situation in the state.
The
feasibility studies is coming on the heels of a recent visit by the French
Ambassador to Nigeria, Jerome Pasquier to the state, where he discussed areas
of economic cooperation, including waste management with Governor Ayade.
Okele told the governor that "We have been having a discussion about this
project over a year ago with regard to the waste management situation in Cross
River State.
"And we arrived at the idea that we will need to do
proper feasibility studies to find out what solution would be best
suited and also what solution will be economically viable.”
According
to the project guideline, the team is expected to develop a sustainable
solution for disposal of municipal waste, both liquid and solid as well
as proffer solutions for the generation of electricity from the end products
at the end of the day.
Okele and his team had earlier
undertaken an inspection tour of the major dump sites at Lemna.
The
purpose of the feasibility studies, according to the team, "is to have
an idea of the technical and financial basis for the project," stressing that
"our feasibility studies will take about six months."
In his
remarks, Governor Ayade, while expressing appreciation to the French
government for the partnership, charged the consortium to see the project as
purely a live saving intervention, and "not something you can periodize as a
research. This is not a research, it is a life saving intervention mission and
that is why you are here. So, if you approach it from that perspective, your
concept of time will become more delicate and sensitive.
"I do not
believe that you need six months to do this feasibility study, you just need
to put more effort and more time. And why am I saying this? This is because
when you finish your feasibility study, you will end up with a position
statement which states that it is a feasible project. Then you go back to the
French Government to process the actual final milestone which is the actual
implementation. So if it takes you six months for feasibility study, by the
time you get the final approval it will be towards the end of next year and
that is not the level of pulse we need."
Ayade who appealed to the team to see the project as both an
existential and humanitarian effort noted: "As you are well aware, with what
you saw when you went to Lemna, the city has grown to join the refuse, so
people are basically living in a refuse dump. So for us, this project is an
existential, fundamental and humanitarian effort by the French government
because with the dumping of all of the unsegregated refuse, with fire and
smoke billowing from there, that triggers a generation of different
types of gases because of insufficient air at the top surface.
"So
what you have is the production of methanogenesis producing methane and other
associated gases. These are compounds that interfere with the learning
capacity of a child. When a child lives in an environment that he or she
perceives odor consistently, retention of knowledge becomes a problem. And so
for us three months or at the most four, will be reasonable for a feasibility
study that gives us opportunity to go back to the French Government with our
proposal in hand that yes, we can do it. So by first quarter of next year we
can move into the implementation proper."
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