Areeba gives to water project

Accra, Oct. 25, GNA - Areeba, a leading mobile phone network service provider in Ghana, on Wednesday presented to the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing a cheque for seven million dollars to extend water from the Weija plant to parts of Accra where residents are underserved with the utility.

The amount is the first instalment of a 20 million dollars pledged by the Company to the Government when it initiated moves to merge with MTN, also a leading international mobile phone network service provider with a heavy presence in Africa.

Professor Mike Ocquaye, Minister of Communications and Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing received the cheque on behalf of the Government. Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the water situation in Accra had been a headache to the Government, which had been trying to find a solution for some time now.

He said the situation had become more serious because the City was expanding to the extent that water services had not been able to keep up the pace.

"There is the need for major interventions to curtail the situation," Mr Owusu-Agyemang said and observed that the amount from Areeba would go a long way to kick-start the project which was estimated at about 32 million dollars.

The project is expected to extend water from the Weija Dam to areas with perennial water shortage including Okponglo, Taifa, Dome, East Legon, Madina and Adenta all in Accra.

The Minister said about 60 per cent of the underserved areas in Accra would be covered when the project was completed.

The Government is also expecting 185 million dollars from China to expand the Kpong Dam and pipelines to serve the water needs of Accra for the next 20 years. Another funding is being sourced for the rural water project.

Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the Ministry was trying to hasten the bid and negotiating process for an agreement on the Areeba funded project to be signed for work to begin as soon as possible.

He said the Ministry would also urge the contractors to speed up work to reduce the duration from 18 months to 12 months; make use of locally manufactured products such as pipelines and employ more local hands.

Meanwhile, work is in progress to sink more boreholes to help to alleviate some of the water problems in the Metropolis, the Minister said and lauded the efforts of Areeba.

Mr Brett Goschen, the Chief Executive Officer of Areeba, said the Company shared in the plight of the people who did not have access to water, which was an important aspect of livelihood.

He said the Company was proud to be part of efforts to bring water to the people saying: "We are happy to invest in uplifting the people and the community in which we operate."

He commended the Government for creating the environment for Areeba to invest in and added "today's programme is an opportunity for us to put something back into the community that helped our operations to be successful".

Mr Goschen said Areeba was in the meantime investing more money into the development of new sites among other projects to improve its services and capacity by March 2007.

Prof. Ocquaye said the Government had since 2001 made strides to empower the private sector to operate in a conducive environment for which the communication sector was a key beneficiary. He said as a result, the number of phones had increased from 400,000 to more than four million.

Prof. Ocquaye said Areeba had been a key player in the achievement of this feat and also enjoyed a sizeable share of the mobile phone network market.

He lauded the Company's aggression in developing its products to deepen the market share by providing value added services. He said Areeba committed itself to give towards the water project after the President stepped in to request for a corporate social service to the people of Ghana before it merged with MTN.

The funding, therefore, emanated from the open negotiations between the Government and Areeba, Prof Ocquaye said, and urged the media to seek the right information in such circumstances. He was referring to some media reports imputing wrongdoing on the part of some Government officials involved in the arrangement. 25 Oct. 06