$5m needed to solve rural water problem - Abongo

Kpatribogu (NR), June 25, GNA - Mr. Albert Abongo, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing on Wednesday said the government needed about 500 million dollars to be able to solve the country's rural water problems.

Similarly, some 1.6 billion dollars would be needed to take care of the urban water problems so that Ghanaians would have continuous access to good drinking water to curb water-related diseases such as the guinea worm.

Mr. Abongo disclosed this at Kpatribogu and Kadia, in the Karaga and the Savelugu/Nanton districts respectively when he inspected and commissioned World Vision (WV) Ghana pipe borne water projects for those communities.

The projects included an Arsenic Removal Plant, a multi-million Mechanized Well and the provision of high level water tanks for the Kadia community in Savelugu/Nanton district, which supplies the over 1,300 community members with quality pipe borne water.

The Kpataribogu water system is using solar energy and has pumping capacity of about 1601/min for storage in the 20,000 litre poly tanks made available for redistribution at vantage points in the community. The projects are joint initiatives of World Vision-Ghana, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Danone-UK, and implemented under the World Vision-Ghana Rural Water Project (GWRP).

Mr. Adongo said the government would invest adequately in the country's water sector to ensure that the entire population would have access to good and quality drinking water to eliminate guinea worm and other water borne diseases.

He said the NDC government would use its internally generated funds and funds from development partners in the next five years to solve the numerous water problems facing Ghanaians.

He said due to the importance government attaches to the water sector, it had provided 30 million Ghana Cedis in this year's budget for rural water distribution, and assured rural communities where access to water was still a problem that government had their welfare at heart. Mr. Basilio Okello, National Director of World Vision-Ghana, expressed his outfit's determination to assist deprived communities, especially where children and women did not have access to adequate potable water.

He said World Vision intends to drill 180 boreholes in the Kpataribogu community to augment the 115 it had already drilled, adding that this would help address the problem of guinea worm in the area. He announced that World Vision would spend a total of about 60,000 dollars in the fifth phase of its programme to help rural communities with water in the two districts.