PGS Ghana, an integrated seismic company supporting the country’s upstream oil and gas industry, has handed over a number of water, sanitation and fishing support projects to communities in six coastal assemblies in the Western Region.
The communities are the Ellembelle and the Shama districts, the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA), the Ahanta West, Jomoro and Nzema East municipalities.
The projects include a 10,000-litre a day-mechanised water system at New Town in the Jomoro Municipality capable of serving up to 20,000 people.
The water system has been fitted with standpipes, an overhead tank for storage, and can be extended to homes and commercial facilities.
Other projects are fishing net mending bays (outhouses) for the six coastal districts to benefit fishers who hitherto mended their nets under makeshift structures at the mercy of the weather.
The new outhouses at the beaches of Esiama in the Ellembelle District, Effasu and Ahobre in the Jomoro Municipality create a conducive place for the fishers to gather to mend their nets in readiness for their next fishing expedition.
The facilities have a roof, enhanced with anti-corrosive paint, a sitting area, a place to hang nets for mending, with the floors tiled for easier cleaning and other communal gatherings.
The company further presented 300 waste bins, 50 each to the six coastal assemblies, to be distributed among areas with fishing activities to keep the beaches clean.
In a speech read on her behalf at the handover ceremony last Friday, the Country Manager of PGS Ghana, Mrs Gertrude AdwoaOhene-Asienim, said fishermen, fish processors and other allied workers at the landing beaches in the six districts were considered important stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
The water project in the Jomoro Municipality, she said, was an improved system identified as one of the needs of the community during the needs assessment by the project team.
She said in the past the company has undertaken other support programmes and urged the beneficiaries of the shed at Ahobre, Efasu and Esiama to ensure proper maintenance of the facilities.
The Community Relations Manager of the Petroleum Commission, Nana EkuaSekyiwa, commended the company for the selection of projects to directly improve the lives of the people with an embedded sustainability plan.
“We are pleased that PGS has chosen water, sanitation and the building of conducive places for our fishermen to have a place to rest and mend their nets,” she said.
The Chief Executive of the Jomoro Municipal Assembly, Louisa Iris Arde, on behalf of the assemblies, commended the company, and said the items and facilities would support the government’s effort to achieve the SDGs for water and sanitation.
Some community members commended the company for its support and that the facilities and the bins for the communities through the assembly were well selected to meet their needs.
By Times Reporter