Government is to demolish all illegal structures that are hindering the smooth construction of the East-West Water Interconnectivity Project linking the Weija Reservoir to the Legon Booster Station. Mr Abubakar Saddique Boniface Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing who announced this on Monday said that although work is ongoing, illegal structures are hindering the progress of work. “People are refusing to vacate the catchment areas where pipes are supposed to be laid despite the advanced notice. These people are preventing about three million people from getting access to potable water,” he lamented. The Accra East-West Project is expected to solve the perennial water problem within the Ga West of the Greater Accra Region serving areas such as Okponglo, Madina, Abokobi, Kwabenya, Ashongman, Ashaley Botwe and their environs. Touring some water project sites in Accra on Monday, Mr Saddique said government would not be lenient with any trespasser as far as the project was concerned. He said everything would be done to ensure that the project was completed in October this year adding, “government is aware of the difficulty the people in the Madina, Domi-Kwabeya, Taifa and other areas go through in accessing potable water.” The Minister visited water pipe laying sites at Abokobi, Madina, and Akweteman to inspect the progress of work on the Ga East-West water interconnectivity. Mr Boniface said the country needed to produce about 150 million gallons of water a day to meet the demands of the population as of now. Professor Mike Ocquaye, Member of Parliament for Domi-Kwabenya, who joined the inspection team said people in his Constituency had not been able to have potable water since the 1980`s. He said, “The people would be relived of the water problems that we are facing us when the project is completed. Mr Raymond Pinkney, Manager of Ballast Nedam Limited, the company implementing the project said about 60 per cent of the laying of pipe in the communities had been completed. He explained that water from Kpong reservoir was not able to serve residents in Madina, Oponglo, Legon, Tema and its surroundings so the alternative means of serving them was to draw water produced at Weija to those residents. Source: GNA