KUMASI SUBURBS TO GET POTABLE WATER (PAGE 29, MARCH 26, 2010)

THE Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, in collaboration with the USAID and the Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), has launched the first phase of a project intended to provide potable water to selected suburbs in the Kumasi metropolis.
The Project, dubbed ‘Oforikrom Water and Sanitation Project’ (OWAS), is also expected to improve sanitation in the selected suburbs in order to reduce the spread of communicable diseases among the residents.
Under the project, 44 standpipes and water storage tanks would be constructed at Kotei, Gyenyase, Oforikrom, Akorem and Adukrom which are the beneficiary suburbs in the Kumasi metropolis to facilitate adequate supply of potable water.
While eight standpipes with one mechanised borehole and a 50-cubic meter water storage tank would be constructed at Kotei which has an estimated population of 7,252, four standpipes with a mechanised borehole and 50-cubic metre water storage tank would be constructed at Gyenyase, which has an estimated population of nearly 19000.
At Oforikrom, which has an estimated population of over 46,000, as many as 20 standpipes and a water storage facility would be constructed, and at Akorem, six standpipes and a water storage facility would benefit an estimated population of 19,111 residents, Adukrom, with an estimated population of 17,568 residents, would receive six standpipes and water storage facility.
As a way of enhancing sanitation in the selected suburbs, three aqua privy toilet facilities would be constructed for residents at Kotei and four of such facilities would be constructed at Gyenyase.
Residents at Oforikrom would have 18 of the aqua privy toilet facilities, and at Akorem, seven of the aqua privy toilet facilities would be constructed to enhance sanitation.
Adukrom will also have nine aqua privy toilet facilities under the project supposed to address the unsanitary conditions in the area.
In an address read on his behalf during the launch of the project, the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr A.S.K. Bagbin, expressed the government’s determination to support the urban poor who had been neglected over the years.
“You will all agree with me that over the years, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions in this country have either been rural or urban bias, leaving a gap for those who dwell in peri-urban and urban poor settlements.” He explained .
Mr Bagbin noted that the project was therefore an “intervention not only as delivering WASH services to the urban poor and peri-urban communities, but also highlights the general problems of such low-income communities which have not been attended to all this while”.
He pointed out that it was the reforms introduced by the Nationsl Democratic Congress government in the 1990s which are yielding “tremendous progress in the sector,” stressing, “Ghana is on track to meet WASH targets set for the MDG’s by 2015”.
He, therefore, charged the WSUP “to develop more of such innovative projects based on their wide experience and expertise to alleviate the suffering of the urban poor dwellers not only in Kumasi, but also in cities such as Tamale, Takoradi and Accra”.
He said with such innovations, the overall health status of the beneficiaries would be improved “and the result will be improved productivity, which we promised Ghanaians in 2008”.
In his welcoming address, the Mayor of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Mr Samuel Sarpong, commended USAID, Care International and other donors, whose efforts in terms of funds and expertise, made it possible for the project to kick-start smoothly.
He pointed out that the health of residents is the primary concern of the KMA, stressing “it is for this reason that provision of water and sanitation services has been placed on the priority list of the government”.
Mr Sarpong therefore urged the chiefs and people of the beneficiary communities to “give their maximum support towards the successful implementation of the project”.