Mismanagement threatens sustenance of Community Water systems in VR

Bodada (V/R), Sept. 7, GNA - The mismanagement of community water systems under the Community Water and Sanitation Agency has been identified as the major challenge threatening the sustenance of water supply in the Volta Region.

Water and Sanitation Development Boards tasked in the various communities to manage the systems are unable to raise the needed funds to maintain and expand the facilities.

This came to light when the Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Water Resources, Works and Housing, visited selected communities in the region, on Monday. Most of the boards have been unable to collect monies for water used since the facilities were installed. At Vakpo, in the Kpando District, the board has only GHC500 in its account and GHC300 in its replaceable account for the six years it was established. As a result, it is unable to repair broken pipelines and extend water to many homes.

Mr Kofi Geraldo, the board chairman briefing the Committee, said operators of standpipes in the community failed to account for GHC280. He said people who had connected water to their private homes also owed the board GHC1,800 while Vakpo Secondary School's indebtedness was at GHC1,347.

Mr Geraldo said the situation accounted for the board's inability to pay GHC3,500 to the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited and to undertake other projects.

At Bodada, in the Jasikan District, the old board was dissolved for misappropriation of funds. Mr Tennyson Gyamebi, chairman of the new board, said the previous board had only GHC96 in its accounts and owed the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited GHC160.

He said the board's employees are owed several months' salaries. Mr David Assumeng Tetteh, Member of Parliament (MP) for Shia-Osudoku, and Chairman of the Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Water Resources, Works and Housing, expressed utter dismay at the revelation and called on the boards to sit up. Nana Abu-Bonsra, MP for Fomena, and deputy ranking member of the Committee, urged district assemblies and traditional authorities to monitor the works of the boards regularly to ensure accountability and the prudent use of the facilities. Mr Henry Ampah Johnson, Regional Engineer of Community Water and Sanitation Agency, said his outfit had begun auditing the 126 boards managing the facilities in the region and said revelations coming out from the auditing were very awful.