Elmina (C/R), Oct. 30, GNA- The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) is supporting four regions with 55 million dollars to provide water and sanitation facilities under the second phase of the Danish support to the water sector.

The regions are Volta, Eastern, Greater Accra and Central regions. Mr Agyenim Boateng, an engineer of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), said this at a day's workshop for district chief executives, presiding members and budget planning officers in the Central Region.

The workshop was to build the capacity of the beneficiary districts to support the programme, scheduled to start next year and also improve water supply and environmental sanitation in rural areas. Mr Isaac Edumadze, the Central Regional Minister in a speech read for him, said the region was selected for the programme because it has been identified as one of the priority regions that need the CWSA's intervention because of its increasing levels of poverty.

He said the region has had to grapple with low water coverage of about 45 per cent as a greater percentage of rural populations do not have access to potable drinking water and improved sanitation facilities.

Mr Edumadze said he hoped the workshop would help improve the capacities of the district assemblies in the region to effectively handle water and sanitation issues and also bring them at par with districts in the other DANIDA supported regions.

Mr Francis Awindaogo, regional director of the CWSA, described the programme as demand driven, adding that the capacity building aspect is important to enable them to compete with other regions.