Wulensi (N/R), Feb 3, GNA - The Nanumba South District Assembly has so far spent 15.8 million cedis in its efforts to solve the water problem facing the people of Wulensi, the district capital, but without any significant results to show.

For a long time now, the residents have not had water, forcing them to spend long hours in search of water at the expense of working hours. Mr Thomas Donkor Ogajah, the District Chief Executive who disclosed this at the first ordinary session of the Assembly at Wulensi on Thursday said the Water Board set up to address the water problem of the township was adopting a piece-meal approach to the work instead of taking pains to identify the problem as a whole.

"By this approach, the moment one problem is solved another arises, rendering the expenditure not worthwhile," he said.

The DCE therefore recommended that the Board be dissolved and a new one set up to manage the Wulensi Small Town Water system. In a related development, Mr Ogajah announced that a three-man District Water and Sanitation Team had been formed to take up issues concerning water and sanitation facilities in the district. A desk Office for the environment had also been formed to help address issues of environmental degradation, sanitation and indiscriminate bush burning, he said and urged Assembly Members to take environmental issues seriously by mobilising their communities to protect the environment.

He said reports reaching him indicated that Fulani herdsmen were moving into the district and appealed to the chiefs, community leaders and Assembly Members to join hands to fight the menace of the herdsmen. He said the Assembly had instituted an award scheme to be competed for by communities that would protect their areas against bush fires. The DCE stressed the importance of peace in any development effort and commended the chiefs and people for maintaining peace in the district but warned that those who attempt to beat the "war drums" would not be spared.

He said security services were on a high alert to "pick up any trouble maker who would want to muddy the waters and send us back to the dark ages".

In another development, President John Agyekum Kufuor has presented 25 colour television sets and 5,000 exercise books to be distributed to junior secondary and primary schools in the District to enhance the President's Special Initiative on Distance Learning.

The DCE presented the items on behalf of the President to Mr Iddrisu Mahama, Headmaster of Wulensi Secondary School, who said the television sets would help improve the performance of the students, especially in the areas of Mathematics and English.