Minister commissions project vehicles

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD), Alhaji Collins Dauda, has commissioned 29 double-cabin pick-up vehicles for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water Project.

The 11 metropolitan and municipal assemblies (MMAs) forming the GAMA, received two pick-ups each with the remaining going to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and the Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing – which are implementing the project.

The vehicles are expected to help the GAMA team to go about their duties smoothly.

Commissioning the vehicles, Alhaji Collins Dauda expressed appreciation to the World Bank Group for the USD150 million IDA grant and the USD4.85 million Global Partnership for Output-Based Aid (GPOSA) grant toward the GAMA project.

He explained that the GAMA project is government’s effort aimed among other things, at ensuring improved sanitation and providing potable water facilities to over 250,000 people in targeted low income communities of the 11 participating MMAs.

The minister hinted that a lot remained to be done in the sanitation and water sectors in view of the fact that only 15% of the population have access to improved household toilet facilities.

Alhaji Collins Dauda mentioned that out of the 29,000 cases of cholera recorded in 2014, GAMA alone recorded 20,000.

Harold Esseku, World Bank representative at the function, commended the MMAs for their respective implementation roles in the past, and reminded them of the need to do more.

The GAMA Project Cordinator, Inj. George Asiedu, mentioned the components of the project as providing improved environmental sanitation and water supply to low income urban communities, provision of water supply, planning, improvement and expansion of GAMA-wide environmental sanitation services and institutional strengthening.