Upper East region has insufficient water supply - Bagbin

Accra, Nov. 9, GNA - Water supply in Upper East Region is insufficient due to dependent on surface and ground water sources, Mr Alban Sumani Bagbin, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing on Tuesday said.

Answering questions on the floor of Parliament, Mr Bagbin said the region currently has urban water coverage of 41 per cent, which comes mainly from water systems in Bolgatanga, Navrongo and Bawku. He said, however that there are small town water systems at Bazua, Sumburugu, Garu Tempani, Binaba and Kusanaba, Tongo, Denugu, Bongo, Davorga, Chiana, Zebilla, Sandema, Paga, Sirigu, Funbisi, and Wiaga. He noted that a number of boreholes at various villages and communities completed the rural water coverage in 2009 adding that there were plans to rehabilitate the existing boreholes and drill new ones. Mr Bagbin said in the long term, funding was being source from the ORIO Programme of the Netherlands to develop a water supply project for the Upper East region.

According to him, the feasibility for the project was being undertaken by Witteven and Bos Engineering of the Netherlands, which would eventually lead to the construction of the new water supply system taking its source from the Tono Dam. Mr Bagbin also explained that the grant agreement had been signed and the feasibility study was to take six months, adding that the project would take two years to complete.