President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on residents of the Upper East Region to pay their water bills on time to help maintain water infrastructure in the region.
“Maintaining this new infrastructure means, also, paying your bills on time. Through that, it will ensure the general well-being and health of all the respective communities,” he said.
The President made the call when he commissioned a newly constructed water treatment plant at Tono in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the region.
He said in January 2018, the Government through the Ministry of Finance, secured funding to the tune of 37, 683, 226.00 Euros, which consisted of a 12 million Euro grant from the Netherlands Government and a 25 million Euros facility from the ING Bank, also in the Netherlands to implement the water project.
President Akufo-Addo said the project was structured into two phases with the aim to increase the design horizon to make adequate provision for future demand in line with Government’s policy to construct water projects taking into consideration future population growth.
He indicated that the water supply system would provide the people of Navrongo, Bolgatanga, Paga and its environs with 20,500 cubic metres of water per day, explaining that, “this is approximately four and half million gallons of water per day, making a threefold increase from the 1.5million gallons per day which was currently available to residents in the region|.
He said a total of 347,446 people would be served with potable water, and mentioned communities such as Zuarungu, Zaare, Sumbrungu, Kalbeo, Gambibgo, Winkogo, Bongo, Yorogo and Tindonmologu among others as additional beneficiary communities.
“The execution and completion of the Upper East Water Supply project, falls in line with the programme of Government to achieve a target set under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number six of ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo said the Government was working diligently to provide funds to improve the water supply situation in other parts of the country with the objective to ensure equity and improved quality of life for all communities in the country.
Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the Minister of Water Resources, Works, and Housing, described the project as a welcome initiative, which would prove the water-for-all agenda of the Akufo-Addo-led-government, to ensure universal access to water for all by the year 2030.
She recalled that during the sod cutting ceremony in 2019, it was observed that one severe bottleneck that hindered water supply in the Region was the limitation of the distribution network, and said the project would resolve that challenge through expansion of the distribution network.
Denis Aneakwoa Balinia Adda Asagpaare II, the Paramount Chief of the Navrongo Traditional Area in his address, expressed gratitude to President Akufo-Addo for the water supply system and appealed to him to complete the Navrongo Youth Resource Centre, which he said was a concern to residents.
