Bukunor (E/R), Aug 9, GNA - Mr Hackman Owusu Agyeman, the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, on Wednesday cut the sod to mark the commencement of work on 38.5-million-Euro Koforidua Water Supply project at Bukunor in the Yilo Krobo District. The 30-month project is to draw water from the Volta Lake 40 kilometres to Koforidua to increase water supply to the municipality and its environs from the current 1.2 million gallons a day to 3.5 million gallons a day up to 2025.

Funding for the project is made up of a Belgian Government Foreign Aid Department's grant of 36 per cent of the amount while 63.4 per cent is a loan from the KBC Bank of Brussels.

Mr Owusu Agyeman said the project was the fruit of the Kufuor administration's commitment to find a lasting solution to the perennial Koforidua water supply problem as it promised the people. He said the project was not only meant to provide potable water supply to Koforidua Municipality but also communities along the route in the Upper Manya and Yilo Krobo districts as well as New Tafo in the East Akim District.

Mr Owusu Agyeman said while the Millennium Development Goal set a target of 75 per cent water supply to the people internationally, Ghana had targeted 85 per cent of attainment as part of her Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy II by 2020.

The Minister said even though the government was inviting the Belgian company and other private companies to assist in the management of water projects, it did not mean it was privatising water supply as claimed by some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) since all the systems belong to the Ghana government. The Minister invited NGOs to collaborate with the government to ensure that water produced from the projects get to the people in the catchments communities.

The Managing Director of the GWC, Mr Samuel Odartey Lamptey, said the existing water supply of 1.2 million gallons per day for the Koforidua municipality fell far short of the expected daily demand of three million gallons.

He said the situation had resulted in unsatisfactory water rationing within the municipality with the attendant painstaking efforts that go with it.

Mr Lamptey said the new plant, designed to produce 3.5 million gallons a day, would along side the existing supply system in Koforidua, serve an approximate population of 310,000 inhabitants including those along the supply route to meet the expected demand. He said the project would draw its raw water intake at Kponyakope, near the Volta Lake with the treatment plant sited at Bukunor, 10 kilometres away.

The New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, Nana Adjei Boateng, said until 2003 when the Koforidua water supply was increased from 800,000 gallons per day to 1.2 million gallons per day, the residents, including educational institutions had to suffer much discomfort and hardships due to water scarcity.

The Chief Executive Officer of DENYS N.Y of Belgium, the contracting company, Mr Johan Von Wassenhove, assured the people that most of its 250 expected labour force would be recruited from the nearby communities and expressed the hope that they would work hard to ensure the completion of the project ahead of schedule.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Yaw Barimah, said the current potable water supply for the region was only 33 per cent and said the government was working towards the rehabilitation of the Kpong Water Works, which serves the Akuapem Ridge, Yilo and Manya Krobo districts as well as the one in the Kwahu area. 9 Aug 06