Water agency appeals to government to release its funds early

Accra, Aug. 26, GNA - Mr Kofi Asamoah, Chief Executive Officer, Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), on Thursday appealed to the Government to release funds for the Agency in time to ensure that it achieved its target of supplying quality water to all rural communities by 2020.

He said as at the third quarter of the year the Agency had received 3.1 billion cedis out of an estimated operational cost of 4.8 billion cedis to carry out water projects in communities earmarked to benefit from the provision of potable water supply.

Mr Asamoah, who was interacting with newsmen prior to an inspection tour to rural communities that had benefited from the community water project, said inadequate funding coupled with the slow pace in the release of funds had hampered the expeditious delivery of water to certain rural communities.

Staff from the State Enterprises Commission (SEC) and CWSA undertook the tour. The SEC annually meets public sector organisations with which it had signed performance contract agreements to review their performance reports on achievement, discuss human resource programmes and verify the status of implementation of capital projects.

So far CWSA, in collaboration with Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), has drilled underground pressure boreholes for Kpone-Seduase and Old Saasabi communities, near Oyibi, in the Greater Accra Region.

The boreholes, which were constructed at the cost of over three billion cedis, would supply water to about 5,000 people, mainly farming communities that had over the years depended on stream water.

Alex Obuobisa-Darko, Water Supply and Sanitation Engineer, CWSA, said an overhead reservoir had been provided to store excess water to ensure that the communities had frequent water supply.

He said the running cost of the project would be less if the area were connected to the National Electricity Grid. It is currently operated with a generator.