Mankessim, a buzzing market centre in the Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region, is to benefit from a one million Euro Sanitation project. Government and the African Development Bank, African Water Facility and The Netherlands Water Partnership are funding the Tripartite Partnership Project, with Training Research and Networking for Development (TREND) Group, a consulting firm as the implementing agent. Speaking at a workshop for the implementation of the project at Mankessim, Mr Eugene Larbi, Team Leader of TREND said the town was chosen for the pilot project because it has a strategic sanitation plan as well as its commercial importance. He said the beneficiary Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies would be required to prioritize water and sanitation projects in their development programmes to improve the living conditions of the people and reduce poverty. The project, signed in January this year, would comprise the construction of public toilet facilities, household toilets; solid and liquid waste management and drainage systems. It would also build the capacity of the people, particularly officials of the municipal assembly to enable them to manage and to supervise the projects effectively. Mr Larbi observed that the country's decentralization policy had placed the responsibility of sanitation on the assemblies and urged them to live up to expectation. He said some non-governmental organizations in the Netherlands have mobilized funds to set up a credit scheme at Mankessim, which would serve as a revolving fund to benefit a larger number of the people. Mr Larbi appealed to the beneficiaries of the fund to pay back the money in time to enable others to benefit. Mr Henry Kweku Hayfron, the Municipal Chief Executive, said the assembly had made serious efforts to improve on sanitation in the commercial town, but the influx of traders had overwhelmed the facilities provided. He said the absence of storm water drainage and sewerage conveyance, poor solid and liquid waste management had compounded the problem. Mr Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, Member of Parliament for Mfantseman West, pledged his support to facilitate the successful completion of the project. Similar projects would be implemented at Ashiaman in the Greater Accra Region and Huni Valley in the Western Region. Source: GNA