A total of 347,446 people from four districts and municipalities in the Upper East Region are set to benefit from the water expansion supply project in Tono, a farming community in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region.
The districts and municipalities, including Kassena-Nankana West and Bolgatanga East Districts, Kassena-Nankana and Bolgatanga Municipalities respectively, would be served with the project which has a transmission pipeline of 26.5 kilometres with a design horizon up to the year 2040.
The project, structured into two phases, has a transmission pipeline of 8.5 kilometres, and distribution pipeline of 53 kilometres, and there was the provision of 4,800 new service connections to ensure inclusion of all consumers, and rehabilitation of the existing Vea water treatment plant to bring the capacity to 5,000 m3 per day.
The Managing Director (MD) for the Ghana Water Company Limited, Dr Clifford Braimah, made the pronouncement when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo inaugurated the Tono water expansion project, as part of his day’s tour in the region, over the weekend.
The President said the objective of the project was to ensure equity and improve the quality of life of the people in those parts of the country.
He explained that government was obliged to ensuring that the citizenry, irrespective of their tribe, gender, religion, whatsoever, enjoyed quality, accessible and affordable water and sanitation because it was essential to the realisation of the goal six of the United Nations (UN) sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“The Tarkwa water supply in the Western Region, the Techiman water supply project in the Bono East Region, the Western North water project are all in the pipeline to help respond to the growing demand for water in those regions”, the President assured.
President Akufo-Addo also encouraged the beneficiary communities to exploit the water facility which had just been inaugurated, by vigorously engaging in irrigation farming to better their lots.
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, on her part, said the people in the region could heave a sigh of relief as the facility had replaced the old pipes and provided additional storage reservoirs for the beneficiary communities, and would permanently solve the acute water situation in many communities.
Meanwhile, the president expressed his profound gratitude to the Nertherlands government for funding the project with a whopping amount of 45 million Euros, saying Ghana valued very much a long-standing relationship with the Nertherlands government, and his administration would explore every avenue to make sure the relationship grow in leaps and bounds.
The Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery, was among the delegation that accompanied the president in his day-long tour in the region.
FROM FRANCIS DABRE DABANG, TONO