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President John Dramani Mahama Tuesday toured water production facilities in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions in partial fulfilment of his promise to ensure regular water supply in the Accra/Tema metropolitan area. The tour, which took him to the Weija Water Treatment Plant in the Greater Accra Region and the Kpong Water Works in the Eastern Region, was to enable him to acquaint himself with the challenges in the water sector. He later visited the Bui Power Authority in the Brong Ahafo Region to ascertain the extent of work on the hydro dam. As part of the tour, President Mahama also inspected ongoing expansion projects at the water treatment plant. He also interacted with the workers and the management of the authority to know their challenges and find solutions that would restore regular supply of water to the beneficiary communities. President Mahama, during his presentation of the State of the Nation Address in Parliament last Thursday, promised that his administration would, in the coming months, work hard to augment water production at the various water treatment plants to reduce current water rationing in the Accra-Tema metropolis. At the Weija Water Treatment Plant, President Mahama gave an assurance that his administration would provide the necessary support that would enable the facility to produce its maximum capacity of 52 million gallons per day to stem the regular interruptions. President Mahama said the government would also support the urban water programme to stem the loss of water resulting from illegal connections and urged the management and staff to play their roles responsibly to curb the perennial losses. He said the government would provide the necessary funding for the Ghana Water Company to replace all the damaged and old filters which had accounted for production deficits in the metropolis, resulting in water rationing a couple of weeks ago. The President also inspected work on the expansion of the Kpong Water Treatment Plant. He said the expansion programme at Kpong and the replacement of filters and major additional works at the Weija Dam would subsequently improve on the water supply situation. He, therefore, appealed to the people to report illegal connections to the authorities to take legal action. Alhaji Collins Dauda, the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, called on the contractors on the projects to expedite action, as continuous water rationing could incur the wrath of many people in the metropolis. He said the government was ready to play its role responsibly and would, therefore, not accept any excuses that would delay the execution of the projects. - GNA