$10,000 Mechanised water system for Potrase

The chiefs and people of Potrase in the Abuakwa South District of the Eastern Region heaved a sigh of relief last Thursday following the inauguration of a $10,000 mechanised water system to provide the community and its environs with potable water.

Potrase, a cocoa farming community, has had serious water problems for many years and relied on the Densu River on the outskirts of the community as its source of drinking water.

The water system, which was constructed by the ECOWAS Commission to help address the lack of potable water in the communities, especially deprived ones, has attached five pipes to ensure the provision of potable water to the inhabitants.

Joy

Residents of the area could not hide their joy over the project as they jubilated and danced to traditional music provided by a local cultural troupe.

A resident of the community, Gifty Yeboah, told the ­ that residents had relied on the Densu River since 2012.

She said the new water facility would provide them with potable water so they would no longer have to travel long distances in search of safe drinking water.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Resident Representative of ECOWAS in Ghana, Ambassador Baba Gana Wakil, said the organisation deemed it necessary and an important part of its work to provide safe drinking water for deprived communities.

He said the new facility provided was through a modest contribution of ECOWAS of which Ghana is a member.

Densu River

Mr Wakil told the chiefs and people that for the next 10 to 15 years, he would want to see the people benefiting a lot from the facility and no longer drinking directly from the contaminated Densu River.

He said his outfit, together with officials from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), in June last year visited the community to do feasibility studies on exactly where to put up the new water facility.

He commended the chiefs and people for supporting ECOWAS to put up the facility and urged members of the community to put in place mechanisms that would ensure the sustainability of the water facility.

For her part, a representative of the ECOWAS Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Neematu Ziblim Adams, who briefly explained to the residents what ECOWAS was all about, said it was necessary to provide the community with potable water.

She urged the inhabitants to regularly maintain the new facility so it lasts long and serve its intended purpose.

The Chief of Potrase, Nana Ansah Sasraku, expressed his gratitude to ECOWAS for the provision of the water facility and said it would lessen the burden on women and children who always went in search of potable water for drinking and also to undertake household chores.

First time

Nana Sasraku, who said it was the first time such facility had been received from the ECOWAS, appealed to the sub-regional body to provide jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in the community since they had completed school and had no jobs.

The chief also urged them to set up a mini factory in the town to enable the youth who completed school without jobs to work.

The Assembly member for the Potrase Electoral Area, Cynthia Dansoa, who was highly elated told the Daily Graphic that their search for potable water had ended because ECOWAS had put back smiles on the faces of the people.

She thanked ECOWAS for the provision of the water facility and assured the body that they would take good care of it.

Writer's email: haruna.wunpini@graphic.com.gh