Finalists of the 2014 Quarry Life Awards (QLA) competition have until Tuesday, September 30 to submit their final projects, the Communication Coordinator, Solomon Ayiah, has announced.
This forms part of processes toward the assessment and identification of the top-three projects and finalists to represent the country on the international stage later this year.
Mr. Ayiah announced this last week, as the national QLA coordinators and jury toured the five finalists’ various project sites. The team were met on arrival by Mr. Noble Biney and Emmanuel Amoako, Plant Manager of Beposo and Quarry Engineer of Yongwa respectively.
The QLA is organised by the Heidelberg Cement (HC) Group and its subsidiaries, including the country’s leading cement manufacturer Ghacem Company of Ghana, to source ideas on effective regeneration and management of biodiversity at its mining sites.
Essentially, it seeks and rewards the most effective ideas on possible ways to reclaim lands in countries where the HC Group operates globally.
As a competition, the top-three national finalists earn automatic qualifications to represent their respective countries at the international level, where the best of the best are selected and awarded.
Two of the five national finalists, Bridget Akpably and Kwasi Boadu Ntiamoah, undertook their projects at GHACEM’s quarry site at Beposo in the Western Region, as the rest -- Reuben Danso Mintah, Dr. Jonathan Hogarh and Millicent Amekugbe -- chose GHACEM’s Yongwa Mine at the Eastern Region.
Explaining the essence of the duty tour, Mr. Ayiah indicated that the national coordinators and jury needed to practically assess the various projects so as to help the finalists review and fine-tune their reports ahead of their submission.
“It is also means that the second edition of the QLA is gradually coming to an end -- and once the best three projects and finalists are identified, we are looking at the international competition,†he said.
The QLA National Coordinator, Kwabena Labi Addo, described the tour as an exercise necessary to help the jury and coordinators arrive at a fair assessment of each project.
“We’re optimistic that this year’s finalists will produce excellent findings, which GHACEM is patiently waiting to work with,†he said, indicating that some of the projects even provide solutions to some social issues confronting the country, such as waste-disposal.
Sharing his observations, a member of the jury, Dr. Erasmus Owusu, expressed satisfaction with the work done by the finalists, saying: “It is gratifying to notice that some of the projects even come with value additionâ€Â.
He explained that aside from their application to protect biodiversity, some of the projects also show some commercial value “and I’m very impressed with that for two reasons:
“First, it gives me hope that Ghana stands a better chance on the world stage this year; and second, the QLA initiative is providing students and researchers to innovate ideas on land reclamation, which can help cut down on unemployment,†he said.
Dr. Owusu, who is also a Conservative Biologist, called for public support for the QLA, as a means to motivate more graduates to venture into research work.
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