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Aqua Vitens Rand Limited, operators of Ghana's urban water distribution system, on Wednesday commissioned a 140,000 euros ICT training centre to train all of its staff members and those of Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL). The centre, sponsored by Rand Water Services (RWS), a subsidiary of South African-based Rand Water, one of the mother companies of AVRL, is to bring staff members of AVRL and GWCL up to speed on technological advancements in the management of the water sector. Mr Mdibanisi Tsheke, Chairman of the RWS, said funding the training centre was RWS's way of sharing technological knowledge with colleagues in Ghana, adding "we believe ICT is the best starting point." He said beyond financing the construction of the 20-seat ICT training centre, RWS would be willing to provide training in special programmes that required special expertise as and when necessary. Dr Hannah Bissiw, Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, said the gesture from RWS was an apt one as it fed into government's policy of improving quality of life through building the requisite human resource for national development. She urged the staff members of GWCL and AVRL to take advantage of the facility to improve workplace productivity and complement government's effort at raising the living standards of individuals and socio-economic development as a whole. Mr Kweku Botwe, Acting Chief Executive Officer of GWCL, noted that ICT had become necessary for the effective operation of every aspect of the water sector and thus providing the staff of the sector with ICT skills was most appropriate. He said the challenge was on the beneficiaries of the training programmes to improve productivity and add value to their work. Mr Botwe appealed to RWS to help AVRL and GWCL to extend similar facilities to the regions to save the cost of training by preventing employees in the regions from coming to the headquarters for ICT training. Mr. Stanley Martey, External Communications Manager of AVRL, said the training was targeted at all employees of AVRL and GWCL since the entire urban water management system was being computerised and that would mean that every employee would need ICT skills to be productive. "We now have all our customers, distribution network on an electronic map and very soon the entire treatment plant would also be fully computerised - we are getting to the point where workers would be required to sit in their offices and control the flow of water to customers by the click of a button," he said. AVRL last year commissioned a US$500,000 Geographic Information System (GIS) facility where the entire distribution network and customer base are captured on an electronic map to provide the basis for remote controlling the operations of the water sector.