President Nana Akufo-Addo has commissioned the ultra-modern Simplified Sewerage Facility and Treatment Plant at Ashaiman, and the rehabilitated and expanded Bankuman Simplified Sewerage Plant.

The two new simplified sewerage networks, comprising some 51kms of sewer lines, and a new wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of some 1,800m3/day in Ashaiman, are to serve some 4,805 households in the community.

The plant in Bankuman, with a capacity of 1,600m3/day, is to serve some 3,100 households.

Speaking at the ceremony, held at Ashaiman, President Akufo-Addo noted that the two projects were constructed at a cost of $6.6 million, and reinforced government’s commitment to offering solutions to the infrastructural gap identified as one of the major challenges plaguing the sanitation and water resources sector.

The President stated that “the projects being commissioned today are examples of the many sanitation projects that have been provided across the country.

This magnificent simplified sewerage system, as well as the rehabilitated Bankuman project, will inure to the benefit of the people living within the catchment areas of Ashaiman and Bankuman communities of Greater Accra.”

Under the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water Project, conceived as one of the pro-poor interventions to ensure the policy of “One-House-One-Toilet” is delivered across the Metropolitan Area, he stated that the Project has delivered some 48,641 improved household toilets, which have benefitted some 389,128 people as at December 2020.

In addition to this, 406 improved and modern disability-friendly, gender-sensitive institutional toilet facilities, benefiting some 251,872 schoolchildren have been completed, as of December 2020.

“The GAMA Project has been so successfully executed that additional financing was sought and obtained from the World Bank to extend the intervention to the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area.

Under the additional financing, a total of 129 improved and modern disability-friendly, gender-sensitive institutional toilet facilities, as well as 30,000 household toilet facilities are under construction for beneficiary schools and individual households, respectively, in the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area,” he said.

The Kumasi Project, President Akufo-Addo said, will also expand and rehabilitate the 29-year-old Asafo sewerage system in Kumasi, providing an additional 12,000 household toilets and 30 institutional toilets in the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area.

Component One of the Greater Kumasi Project, he added, will extend potable water, by laying some 120 kilometres of pipelines, provide 5,000 new service connections; establish a telemetry, and also retool the Ghana Water Company’s metre shop to reduce non-revenue water.

“Ghana has made significant strides towards the attainment of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on water and sanitation. Currently, access to basic drinking water services has increased from 79% of the population in 2017 to 87.7% in 2021” he said.

The President continued, “Access to improved toilet facilities, including public toilets, has also increased from 66% to 80.8% within the same period.

The Akufo-Addo Government is investing an amount of some US$ 1.4 billion in several water and sanitation projects nationwide.

Some of these projects have been completed, and others are still ongoing. It is expected that some 5.3 million people will benefit from these interventions when completed.”

Recognising the huge resources required to provide, maintain and sustain sanitation and water infrastructure across the country, President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that government is in partnership with other key stakeholders and the private sector for support in providing these vital services.

“I urge all of us to help sustain and improve the gains made so far by maintaining healthy environmental sanitation, protecting our water bodies and supporting the Clean Ghana Campaign,” he added.