A total of 146 communities in eight districts in the Central Region would benefit from a cluster of water systems commissioned by President Akufo-Addo.

The GH¢73.4 million-project, funded by the World Bank through the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), in collaboration with the Ghana Water Company Limited, is expected to increase the water coverage in the region from 63% to 70%.

The two water projects, the Anomansa Cluster Water System, in the Mfantseman constituency, and the Papaase Cluster Water System, in the Awutu Senya West constituency, are part of the overall GH¢170 million water supply project across 11 regions in the country.

“I have been made to understand that the choice of the Amasamkrom community, for the commissioning of the Anomansa Cluster Water System, is due to the fact that it is the central community in relation to all the nineteen (19) beneficiary communities within the cluster,” the President said.

The Sustainable Rural Water Sanitation Project started in 2017 includes the laying of 564.4 kilometres of pipes in nine clusters.The project component also includes health and sanitation education, institutional development and the construction of 6,118 toilets for households.

The President expressed the hope that investors would work to take advantage of the water projects to invest in the communities, create jobs and reduce poverty.

“I urge the CWSA to work to link the supply of water to support small-scale enterprises, particularly those under the One-District, One-Factory (1D1F) initiative, to promote local industrialization,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo also  indicated that the Papaase Cluster Water System, which was completed this year, on 24th February, 2020, at a total cost of some eleven million cedis (GH¢11 million), is currently providing water to nearly forty-eight thousand (48,000) people living in this community.

He was hopeful that the 146 water systems would go a long way to enhance the country’s collective efforts at protecting the citizenry from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have secured funding for two other rural-based water supply projects, namely, the Rural Communities and Small Towns Water Supply Project (RCSTWSP), otherwise known as the Aqua Africa Water Project, which will benefit one hundred and fifty (150) communities in the Ashanti, Eastern, Greater Accra, Oti and Volta Regions, and the Phase III of the Water Supply Scheme for Central Tongu, Adaklu Anyigbe, Agotime-Ziope Districts and the Ho Municipality,” he noted.

Further, the government, through the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, has awarded contracts for the construction of six hundred and forty-five (645) mechanised borehole systems nationwide.

The President encouraged inhabitants in the beneficiary communities, with requisite skills in water systems management, to take advantage of the employment opportunities created by the provision of these water systems.

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, in her address, explained how critical water is in the nation’s development agenda and said, the commissioning of the water project in the beneficiary communities would ease the burden of women and children in walking long distances to access potable water.

The Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan, expressed the region’s gratitude to the President for the numerous development projects that had so far been executed in the region.

He said, with the execution of the water system in the area, residents would not have the burden of struggling for water, which, he said, continued to slow down economic activities in the area.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Worlanyo Siabi, indicated that the agency would continue to work in the interest of Ghanaians at all times with particular reference to the provision of quality water.

He said more employment opportunities had been created as part of reforms embarked by the board and management of the CWSA.

The beneficiary districts in the region include the Assin South, Abura Asebu Kwamankese, Mfantseman, Awutu Senya West and Gomoa West districts. The rest are the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Agona West and Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam districts.