Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Dr. Kweku Agyemang-Mensah, has reiterated government’s readiness to continue to devise technical and administrative measures to ensure equity in the provision of safe and affordable water to the people in the urban and rural communities.
According to the sector minister, the government’s vision of achieving 100% water coverage for all by the 2025 is on course, mentioning the injection of US$ 48 million grants from World Bank in the water sector to attain that vision.
He asserted that government was in firm position to provide potable and affordable water to the door steps of all average Ghanaians, and as a result reduce the stress and cost of travelling to far places to access water for the use of households.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Today, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH), Mr. Abraham Otabil on behalf of the sector Minister pledged government’s commitment of working assiduously with key stakeholders in the sector in order to achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in water sub-sector in the country.
The intended initiative, he told Today was indicated in the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) II, National Water Policy and the 2012 Manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
According to Dr. Agyemang-Mensah, in 2014, Mahama-led NDC government was able to redeem its campaign promise by providing affordable and safe water to the people in Kwabenya, Madina, Adenta, Ashaley Botwe in the Greater Accra Region to address the perennial water challenges in the areas.
“We want to state that this promise has been redeemed as the people living in these areas in Accra now have access to adequate potable and affordable water. Even though we admit that there were challenges with the distribution network. This is was being tackled,” he averred.
He mentioned that measures taken to address the deficit involved the successful implementation of a number of water supply schemes.
The most significant of these, according to Dr. Agyemang-Mensah are injection of 40MGD from Kpong Water Expansion Project, completion of 9.2MGD from Accra Tema Metropolitan Area (ATMA Rural) water supply project and injection of 3.3MGD from Kpong intake rehabilitation project.
Other water intervention measures, he said includes 5towens( Osenase Apedwa, Kibi, Kwabeng and Anyiman) water supply project, Ashanti Mampong water supply project, Essakyir water supply project and Barrekese expansion water supply project.
He noted that urban water delivery, the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) accounts for well over 65 % of the country’s urban water coverage, adding that in 2015 a total national deficit was 101 MGD and the GAMA accounted for 63MGD.
He explained to Today that with hard work, the government has been able to increase the production capacity in GAMA by 65.7MGD, noting that the deficit has been addressed and GAMA records an excess capacity of 2.7MGD.
He revealed that urban water coverage now stands at 76%, adding that the national demand for urban water currently stands at 257MGD while production was 219.2MGD.
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