Flooding of Volta Lake destroys $75m water project

The Yeji Small Towns Water Supply System (STWSS) project, in the Brong-Ahafo Region, has been lost to the Volta Lake, due to the inappropriate location of the project.

Yeji lost the water facility as a result of a devastating flooding of the Volta Lake into the town in September 2010.

Beside the predicament of Yeji, another STWSS at Parambo/Sawaba in the district had also collapsed to the Lake and had compelled the people in the two towns to depend on the polluted lake.

Mr Masawud Mohammed, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Pru disclosed this at Yeji on Thursday, at an emergency assembly on the Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project (SRWSP) at Yeji, the district capital.

He said the loss of the water facilities might be attributed to “poor community consultation and involvement”, as well as, the project planning and implementation.

“The district has had very bad experiences, as regards active community involvement in project planning and designing, which has defeated the purpose of the projects, as the people have gone back to the polluted water”, the DCE said.

SRWSP is a World Bank (WB) and the International Development Agency (IDA) funded project for selected districts, in six regions of the country, including the Brong-Ahafo, which has 11 out of its 22 districts and municipalities benefiting.

Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Central and Western are the other beneficiary regions.

The STWSS project, costing $75 million, with about five and a half years duration for completion, spans 2010-2016 and is aimed at increasing access to potable water and improved sanitation in the beneficiary districts.

Mr Mohammed appealed to the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) to technically and financially support the District Assembly to have the Parambo/Sawaba system restored.

He commended the CWSA for including the district in the project, noting that, the district would benefit from about 20 boreholes, a STWSS project, to be sited at Prang, a number of institutional latrines and extensive promotion of Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS).

He expressed the hope that the project would succeed “and be classified as one of the most successful sub-projects ever implemented in the district and for that matter the region because we as a district are ready to fully support all the processes of implementation to make it a success”.

Mr Joseph Boateng, a water and sanitation engineer and Mrs. Mabel Amu Taylor, an Extension-Services Specialist, both of the CWSA regional office in Sunyani separately addressed the Assembly about the country’s SRWSP, its components, description and objectives.

They emphasized that the success and sustainability of the project depended on the commitment and preparedness of the people to manage it effectively and called on stakeholders to form various committees to see to the implementation of the project from the beginning to completion, as well as its subsequent daily management.

Nana Siahene Mpreh Kukuigyi II, Gyaasehene of Yeji, who presided for Pimapim Yaw Kagbrese V, Paramount Chief of Yeji Traditional area, urged members of the assembly to educate the electorate on the need to manage the facility for its sustainability.

He requested that the project be extended to schools in the beneficiary communities to avoid pupils and students contracting water-borne diseases.

Source: GNA