Govt commits to potable water for all as Ghana observes World Water Day
Ghana joined the international community to mark the 2016 World Water Day in Accra yesterday, with the government reiterating its commitment to ensure that all Ghanaians get access to potable water by 2025.
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Currently, the country has achieved 77 per cent of potable water coverage, meaning that 77 people out of every 100 sampled has access to potable water.
The celebration of World Water Day provides a platform to advocate the sustainable management of freshwater resources worldwide.
The global theme for the 2016 celebration was: “Water and jobs”, but locally the day was observed on the theme: “Improved safe water access for sustainable livelihoods”.
Speaking at the ceremony to mark the day in Accra, the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing Dr Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah said the government would continue to invest in water projects to facilitate the realisation of the national 2025 potable water agenda.
Water shortage
He said the recent unfortunate water shortage in some parts of the country and the attendant stress due to the long spell of dryness across the country should be a wake-up call for all stakeholders.
Dr Agyeman-Mensah said the bad state of water bodies could be blamed on pollution caused by crude oil dumping, the discharge of untreated urban domestic waste, contamination from illegal mining and other industrial processes.
For his part, the Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Mr Frederick Lokko, said the celebration offered an occasion to focus attention on the need to intensify advocacy for sustainable management of freshwater resources.
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Investment
He said the government invested US$768 million into 22 potable water projects between 2013 and 2015.
That, he said, ensured that water coverage moved from 64 per cent to 77 per cent.
“The government is further investing US$676 million into more water projects which will further increase water coverage by an additional 10 per cent by the close of 2016,” he said.
According to him, all the projects were mainly capacity expansion and new infrastructure installation expected to increase access to water and improve the livelihood of the citizenry.
Mr Lokko said currently the GWCL was unable to account for 42 per cent of water produced on a daily basis and the loss was categorised into physical and commercial loss.
He, therefore, called on all stakeholders and customers to fulfill all the required obligations to the company to ensure that the GWCL delivered quality service.
Other celebrations
Mary Anane reports from Kpeve that the Volta Regional Director of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Madam Sally Donkor-Zonu, has called on women and children to play a central part in managing and safeguarding water bodies in the country.
She said water was no longer the cheap commodity it used to be and, therefore, there was the need to develop the right attitude towards its management through participatory approach by users, including women and children, planners and policy makers at all levels.
The Volta Regional Chief Manager of the GWCL, Mr Philip Dwamena-Boateng, stated that the availability and sustainable management of water had a direct link with the creation of quality jobs because almost half of the world’s workers were in water-related sectors.
From Barekese, Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor reports that the Chief Manager in charge of Production of the GWCL in the Ashanti Region, Mr Francis Kwesi Awotwe, has warned of a serious water crisis in the region if the level of encroachment at the Barekese and the Owabi dams, as well as other water bodies, is not checked
He gave the warning at a ceremony to mark the regional celebration of World Water Day.
Mr Awotwe said the alarming rate at which people were encroaching on the land around the dam was posing a serious threat to the survival of the water body that fed both the Owabi and the Barekese dams.
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He said in the next 20 to 30 years, "if we don't stop this negative practice, this dam could dry up and this could be serious for the region and the whole country".