Ghana: Water to soon flow to 12 districts in the Western Region
By Peterking Quaye with Support from GNA – The Western Regional town of Supomu-Dunkwa, perennial water shortage in the Shama District of the Western Region is expected to be a thing of the past with the provision of potable water under the World Bank funded small-town water supply project. The Ghana Office of the World Bank said the bank had voted 75 million dollars for the entire project.He noted that sanitation had become a major problem in the country over the years and called for a community led approach to ensure its success.
The projects targets 12 districts in the region is an initiative under the International Development Agency and is part of efforts by the World Bank to curtail water and sanitation problems that Africa in general and Ghana in particular had had to grapple with over the years as well as meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
Speaking at launching Joseph Jonah, an Engineer of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), the implementing body, who launched the project at Supomu-Dunkwa revealed that an estimated 600,000 people in six regions: Western, Central, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Upper East and Upper West were expected to benefit from the project before the 2015 deadline.
Mr Jonah said the community was therefore charged to own the project, monitor, manage and maintain the facilities to ensure a longer lifespan. The sanitation component of the project is expected to provide household latrines for communities and individuals as a way of curbing open defecation and its attendant diseases like cholera, dysentery and diarrhoea.
Shout-Africa.com source in the Supomu-Dunkwa village says ,the CWSA will construct 20 boreholes and a number of stand-pipes which individuals could also connect into their homes.
Emmanuel Nkrumah, Water and Sanitation Specialist was in attendance, Madam Emelia Arthur, Deputy Western Regional Minister spoke about the critical role water played in the development process. She noted that government had in that regard signed an agreement with the Spanish Government to treat sea water for consumption.
Adding his voice to laud the effort was Nana Pansor IV, Chief of Supomu-Dunkwa, expressed the communities’ gratitude to government and pledged support for the successful completion of the project.
