<<Print>>

The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Foundation has constructed and handed over 10 boreholes with hand-pumps to communities and schools in three Municipal and District Assemblies in the Upper West Region.

Five of the boreholes are located in Sissala East Municipal, three in Wa Municipal and two in Nandom District to supply potable water to school children and residents who before then relied on unwholesome water sources for drinking and other domestic purposes.

“We are grateful to GNPC for extending this as part of your corporate social responsibility to the Upper West Region and Sissala East Municipality,” Deputy Regional Minister Amidu Issahaku Chinnia in Jijen where one of the boreholes was commissioned.

He urged teachers and community members to take good care of the facilities to ensure constant supply of water to the localities, especially school children.

“Access to safe water and sanitation remain a fundamental challenge for many under-served Ghanaian communities and as our contribution to supporting efforts by Government to improve living conditions of Ghanaians,” Dr Dominic Eduah, Executive Director of GNPC Foundation said at Sojadauyiri, where he commissioned one of the boreholes.

He expressed the hope that the gesture would improve sanitation and ensure that school children stayed in school, and thus help curb the phenomenon where many pupils abandoned school in search of drinking water.

Mrs Patience Lartey, the Foundation’s Head of Environment and Social Amenities, said GNPC Foundation has constructed 100 boreholes across the country, out of which 40 were in the Northern Region and 10 each in Upper East and Upper West regions.

She added that 20 of them were constructed in the Western Region and 20 sited in various communities across Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Central regions. (Before creation of the new regions).

“We do not want to come in the next five to six months and find out that the boreholes working today are no longer working,” she said:  “We want the assemblies to maintain the boreholes and put them to good use”.

The Sissala East Acting Municipal Director of Education, Alhaji Mutawakilu Fasasi, described the handing over of the water facilities as timely intervention.

"This will help sustain our children in school during instructional hours and also prevent movement and loss of contact hours when in school," he said, and appealed to the Parent and Teachers Association to maintain the boreholes.