Five communities to be provided with potable water

Wa, July 24, GNA - Just a day after President John Atta Mill's call on Ghanaians to be time conscious and adopt more positive approach to enhance the business environment, organizers of a workshop on Small Towns Pipe Water Systems in Wa appeared not to have paid heed to the call.

They delayed the Upper West Regional Minister, Mr. Mahmud Khalid, for more than 45 minutes waiting for officials of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) to arrive at In-service Training Centre for the commencement of business.

The programme, scheduled to start at 0900 hours started later with an apology from the Regional Director, Mr. Worlanyo Siabi, blaming the delay on a meet he held at the office with consultants on the project. Mr. Khalid appealed to heads of departments and agencies in the region to keep up to time, saying: "Time is the soul of business and should be valued as precious as life". He said it was pathetic that because of the existence of the word apology, some organizers of functions deliberately delay and only come to render an apology for being late. "This practice must stop. I will not put up with this Africa time of doing business any longer", Mr. Khalid said. The workshop was to prepare stakeholders in the projects chain to play their roles appropriately for the smooth commencement of constructional works on Small Town Water Supply Systems in five communities in the region.

The World Bank is funding the projects and with the government providing a component cost of 3,109,380.00 Ghana cedis. The beneficiary communities are Funsi, in the Wa East District, Kaleo in the Nadowli District, Babile in the Lawra District and Busa and Charia in the Wa Municipality. The projects are scheduled to be completed by March 2010 and would benefit more than 19,000 people.

Mr Khalid said there were many challenges the World Bank brought to the notice of the government some of which have the potential of undermining the early completion of the projects. He mentioned non-commitment of some district assemblies towards project management and support to communities in resolving disputes during implementation, delay in payment of contractors, non-conformity of contractors to design specifications and delay in project execution. Mr. Khalid said all uncompleted works after the projects closure date of March 31, 2010 would be funded by the affected assemblies from their own coffers.

He appealed to beneficiary communities to consider the release of land for the construction of the projects as part of their commitment to the implementation process and should therefore not demand compensation from the CWSA.

Mr. Siabi said funds for the projects would also cover the construction of six water systems in Upper East, Central and Western regions.

He said the World Bank had previously provided funds for the construction of eight small towns' water systems and remedial works have started on three of the water systems at a cost of 135,000.00 Ghana Cedis.