Ecological Development of
Valley View University, Accra, Ghana

(nur in Englisch)

Valley View University (VVU) is the oldest private university in Ghana. It is located near the capital, Accra. VVU now hosts around 1.000 people on the campus. The population is expected to grow to around 5.000. VVU's strive to excellence encompasses ecology and ethics.

In order to become the first ecological university in Africa, an ecological master plan has been developed, which allows for a future development in a holistic way and follows the idea of cycle management. For this purpose, a holistic ecological concept that allows for optimization of traffic, water and nutrients, open space, energy and waste has been developed. The overall concept is integrated in the ecological master plan.

The creation of a sustainable campus led to the formation of an interdisciplinary team with a common goal: to develop, implement and evaluate sustainable methods of urban planning, building, sanitation and agriculture. As part of the whole, a special concept for cycles and reuse of waste water, grey water, urine and organic matter including the area of the VVU farms shall be implemented at VVU, supported by a research and development project financed by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). This also meets the main topics of the millennium goals, agreed upon at the UN conference at Johannesburg 2004, where discussion on water was outstanding, being utterly necessary for the human beings directly as drinking water and indirectly for growing food.

2: Team  

The implementation of the master plan shall be a regional and supra-regional pilot project. With that concept, the VVU wants to set an example for other African countries.
The design of the ecological master plan is a basic requirement for the development of a water and nutrient cycle management concept for the whole campus.
Energy and water are limited and precious resources; therefore it is very necessary to build in a resource-saving and sustainable way. The aim was to develop a coherent and holistic concept that allows dealing with landscape and the resources of the campus as well as sustainable and ecological building which goes easy on resources. In order to create a feasible overall concept, it is necessary to develop conclusive partial concepts.

3: Masterplan 

The First Year 2003

The main focus of the pre-phase of the ecological sanitation project in 2003 was on reworking the existing master plan into an ecological one and developing a concept for water and nutrients within the holistic ecological concept. The existing sanitary facilities of the administration building were replaced by ecological ones; like water saving and separating toilets, urinals and tanks. Initial training courses for craftsmen, students, staff and faculty took place using the installed new sanitary fittings. A trial field was prepared and first crops have been grown. In this pre-phase also the evaluation of the acceptance of these installations started.

Ecological development of Valley View University

VVU is eager to build an outstanding campus that operates in harmony with the environment and also to the benefit of the local communities. For this reason a holistic ecological concept that includes concepts for utilization, traffic, water and nutrients, open space, energy and waste is developed. The overall concept is integrated in the ecological master plan, which allows a future development of the university in a holistic manner. The creation of a sustainable campus led to the formation of an interdisciplinary team with the common goal: to develop, implement and evaluate sustainable methods of urban planning, building, sanitation and agriculture. Supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research the group includes public as well as private partners from Ghana and Germany.