Water, housing projects for two regions

THE outgoing Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Yaw Barimah, has cut the sod at separate ceremonies for work to begin on housing and water projects in the Volta and Greater Accra regions respectively, reports Charles Benoni Okine & Mabel Aku Baneseh.

The housing project is to resettle residents of Vodza in the Keta District of the Volta Region, who were displaced by floods, while the water project will help to supply water to some selected communities in the Ga District.

The first phase of the housing project will comprise the construction of 100 houses with modern facilities.

In all, the government plans to put up a total of 836 houses with modern facilities and other infrastructural facilities for the residents of Vodza, Adzido, Kedzi and Keta.

At the ceremony, which was witnessed by hundreds of residents of Vodza and its surrounding communities, as well as some government functionaries, Mr Barimah said between ?4 and ?5 billion is expected to be spent on the first phase of the resettlement programme.

Twenty local contractors have been contracted to build five houses each within the next six weeks to pave the way for the reclamation of the remaining low-lying areas at Vodza.

Mr Barimah appealed to the contractors on the project to avoid shoddy work.

He also appealed to residents who are reported to have started winning sand on the reclaimed lands to stop, ?since it has the potential of undermining the integrity of the project?.

The Regent of Keta, Togbi James Ocloo, expressed profound gratitude, on behalf of his people, to President J. A. Kufuor, for not abandoning them at the time they needed assistance.

The District Chief Executive for Keta, Mr E. K. Vorkeh, and the Member of Parliament for Anlo, Mr Victor Gbeho, also thanked the government for the gesture, which they said will turn the fortunes of the town around for the better.

Meanwhile, work is progressing steadily on the $84 million Keta Sea Defence Project being undertaken by Messrs Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company of the USA. Work on the project is expected to be completed in August this year, six months ahead of schedule.

The water project in the Ga District, estimated at ?246 billion, involves the laying of 51 kilometre pipelines to Kasoa, Sowutuom, Ofankor, Amasaman, Pokuase, Darkuman, Anyaa, Ablekuma, among other areas.

It forms part of the Western Accra Area Weija Dam Remedial Works and Effluent Treatment Improvement Project.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Barimah said the project will improve and expand the water supply situation in Western Accra by covering some areas which hitherto were not served by the existing distribution network.

He said the project will also facilitate remedial and emergency works on the Weija Dam to enable potable water to reach more of the deprived communities to reduce the incidence of water-borne diseases in the surrounding areas of the metropolis.

Mr Barimah said effluent from the dam is not being properly managed and that has created some environmental problems.

The Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Arie van der Wiel, said no water supply system will be sustained unless there is investment to maintain and expand existing ones to meet the needs of development and growing populations.