Central Region MMDAs to get 200 boreholes/sanitation facilities

Cape Coast, April 28, GNA - Thirteen Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Central Region are to benefit from the construction of 200 boreholes, eight small town pipe systems, eight limited mechanized water distribution systems as well as some institutional KVIPs.

Beneficiaries of the project are Cape Coast, Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira, Upper Denkyira East and West, Assin North and South, Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Awutu-Senya, Efutu, Agona East, Mfantsiman as well Gomoa East and West. This was disclosed by an Assistant Director of the Central Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), Mrs Dorcas Hutchful Aidoo, on Wednesday at the launch of the International Development Association - Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project (IDA-SRWSP) in Cape Coast.

The World Bank funded Project, which has already been launched at the national level and in some districts, is to be implemented within five years in the Central, Western, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.

It is aimed at expanding the provision of safe drinking water while the sanitation component was to intensify hygiene promotion for improved behavioral change, particularly to stem open defecation with its attendant health implications.

Mrs Aidoo appealed to the MMDAs to strengthen their structures to enhance the delivery of the projects. The Mayor of Cape Coast, Mr Anthony Egyir Aikins, noted that increasing access to drinking water supply and improved sanitation in rural areas had been on the priority agenda of successive governments and that the Government of Ghana in collaboration with other donors had requested that the World Bank Group continued its involvement in rural water supply and sanitation.

He said the Project was to compliment the implementation of the National Community Water and Sanitation Project for District Assemblies to be coordinated and facilitated by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA).

Mr Egyir Aikins announced that to effectively tackle sanitation problems in the Metropolis, the Assembly had taken delivery of skip containers, which had been placed at vantage points in some communities, in addition to the construction of 12 ten-seater toilets in the Metropolis.

The Central Regional Engineer of the CWSA, Mr Henry Asangbah, said that a four-wheel-drive pick-up vehicle would be provided each for the 13 participating MMDAs as well as the RCC; $4,400 worth of equipment would also be provided to the MMDAs whilst $4,933 worth of equipment would be given to the RCC to step up their monitoring role. Mr Asangbah said the CWSA would support the various district assemblies to supervise the projects and would report quarterly to the World Bank.

Mr Gustav Osiakwan, the Central Regional Hydrogeologist of the CWSA, enumerated some negative impacts the projects could have on the communities to include air and dust emission, noise, open pits and trenches, water contamination, disposal of construction waste and faecal matter disposal.

He said for this reason, boreholes would be appropriately sited, there would be proper clearance of sites before backfilling all pits, waste products would be properly disposed of, trees would be planted to protect water catchment areas whilst latrines would be appropriately sited to prevent water and air pollution. 27 April 11