Senior Minister, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo has cut the sod to pave way for the rehabilitation and expansion of the Sekondi-Takoradi Water Supply System.

The project which is costing Ghana €70 million Euros, when completed would produce 22.2 million gallons a day to serve about 42 communities within the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis (STMA) and the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality (EKMA).

Speaking at a short ceremony to mark the occasion, Osafo-Maafo said the Government has secured funding for the over three-year construction project from the Austrian Government while Cabinet and Parliament have also approved the project.

He indicated that the Nana Akufo-Addo led-Government was committed to living up to its social responsibility by providing such indispensable services to the people of Ghana and noted that the Region would be attractive to food and mineral processing companies when the project was completed.

Osafo-Maafo charged the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to install water leakage detection systems to prevent loss of processed water across the country.

He advised the beneficiary communities to contribute their quota towards ensuring the sustainability of the facility by protecting the infrastructure through effective and regular maintenance.

“I know you are working on putting in place technical systems to enable you to detect as soon as possible when water begins to leak along the line. Technology is available and I know you are working to put them in place. We don’t want a situation when we produce the water, and we openly lose a lot through leakages. It doesn’t speak well of Management”, he stated.

The Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Ms Cecilia Abena Dapaah said the rehabilitation and expansion works were within Government’s policy to achieve the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goal of having access to potable water by all.

“I want to stress that it is the policy of this Government that by the year 2030 all people living in Ghana will have access to safe potable water which will be in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals”, she emphasized.

According to her, it was proposed that the new 100,000 cubic meters per day conventional water treatment facility would be constructed to meet the current and future requirements of the beneficiary communities up to 2030.

The Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah said the project was in line with the Government’s recognition of the Region’s water supply challenges, and for that matter, it would help to reduce the water supply hardship to the over 800,000 people within Sekondi-Takoradi and its environs.

The Managing Director of GWCL, Mr Clifford Brimah said the rehabilitation and construction would help the Company to reduce the current rationing of water in the Metropolis.

“To ensure that water is supplied to the majority of the people within the Metropolis, GWCL had to ration water supply to selected areas daily, and therefore this project upon completion will help to reduce the rationing”, he opined.

Mr Brimah explained that, the installed capacity of the two plants at Daboase and Inchaban after rehabilitation in 2004 became 45 thousand cubic meters per day representing 99.9 million gallons per day, but that the current average production due to some activities along the river banks is 30 thousand cubic meters per day representing 6.6 million gallons as against demand of 90 thousand cubic meters per day.

Officials of the construction firm undertaking the project, STRABAG AG of Austria assured of their commitment to completing the project within the expected 40 months period.