President takes personal interest in Madina's water problem

Accra, Nov. 10, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor has taken personal interest in solving the perennial water supply problem in Madina, Adenta, Abokobi and surrounding communities.

He has made personal interventions resulting in loans and grants from Scancom Ghana Limited, operators of Areeba Cell phone towards the improvement of water supply in the affected communities.

Ms Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing announced in Parliament on Friday that Areeba had deposited 17 million dollars towards water supply projects in the communities. Ms Dapaah announced the assistance of the company in answer to questions on when the perennial water problem facing the Abokobi-Madina, especially Madina Township and its surrounding areas would be solved. Alhaji Amadu Sorogho, NDC-Abokobi-Madina asked the question.

The Minister said the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), in the short-term had commissioned drilling contractors to undertake the drilling and machination of boreholes as well as the extension of pipelines to borehole sites around Pantang and Agbogba. The completion of these projects expected within six months would supplement the intermittent supplies from Okpoglo Booster Station to Pantang and Madina areas.

In the medium-term a plant is intended to be constructed at Weija, which would connect to the Okpoglo Booster Station to enable more water to be transferred from Accra West to the Okpoglo Booster Station from where it would be pumped to serve East Accra area, including Madina. Ms Dapaah said the project was expected to commence in the first week of December 2006 and would be completed in 18 months.

She said in the long term a Chinese construction company, Messrs China Ghezouba, had submitted a technical proposal and preliminary design for the development of a new treatment plant at Kpong. The Minister said the proposal had been reviewed and approved by the GWCL and a financial proposal was being reviewed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for the determination of the concessionary terms and whether it would meet the government of Ghana conditions. She said Madina and surrounding areas, which at present received water from Kpong Headworks and served from Okpoglo Booster Station. However, the plant, which was commissioned in 1965, had not been expanded although the population of the supply had been increasing. Ms Dapaah said rationing of water was therefore undertaken to equitably distribute the available water to residents of the area, adding that due to power interruption and low water pressures rationing was sometimes not effective in those areas.