Tongor-Tsanakpe gets $100,000 water treatment facility
Safe Water Network on Wednesday commissioned a $100,000 water treatment facility at Tongor-Tsanakpe in the South-Dayi District of the Volta Region.
The Network also gave out hundreds of sanitized water containers to the community dwellers at a subsidized price for safe storage of water.
The facility, which had support from Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Newman’s Own Foundation, both US charities ,would help reduce the incidence of water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid and bilharzia, which the community, with a population of about 5,000 had been grappling with.
The project, christened “Tongor Safe Water Station” is also expected to bring to an end, the trekking of women and children for about one and half kilometers to fetch water from the Volta Lake.
Mr Charles Nimako, Director, Safe Water Network-Ghana, said his outfit was moved by the plight of the people, who were living along the Volta Lake, yet do not have potable water.
He said the Network used “modular slow sand method” to treat water from the Volta Lake and declared it “clean and safe,” saying, it is 100 per cent safe and that it has met the World Health Organization’s (WHO) standard for safe water.
Mr Nimako said the facility would be expanded to five surrounding communities soon, and that, the Network would work with the community in managing the facility for transparency.
“We have already opened an account for the community and we will employ people here to manage the facility but we will monitor their activities to ensure transparency and maintenance of the equipment,” Mr Nimako stated.
He commended the Volta River Authority (VRA) Resettlement Trust Fund, VRA, KOSMOS Energy Ghana and UNICEF for their support and said the project was in honour of John Whitehead, a Philanthropist, whose birthday party proceeds were used to support the project.
Mr David Kanyi, District Coordinating Director, South-Dayi District, commended the Network for the support and asked the community to own the facility and maintain it.
Mr Mike Akoto, a Former Assembly Member for Tongor-Tsanakpe, who was elated by the facility, said since the community’s three boreholes broke down in 2010, the people had to depend on rain water and the Volta Lake.
“In fact we are not expecting this. Our water problem is over. Look, this is double Christmas for us. For several years, we had pipelines laid by the Ghana Water Company to our homes but water does not flow in it,” he stated.
Madam Adzonor Akosua, a mother of three told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that “even if we are not able to celebrate well this year’s Christmas, seeing the facility was enough Christmas for us.”
Another major problem facing the fishing and commercial community is open defecation.
Mr Forson Nyame, from the South-Dayi District Health Directorate, told the GNA that all public toilets in the community were destroyed by flood in 2012, so a good number of people in the community defecate in the bush.
Safe Water Network was established in 2006 by Paul Newman, an Actor and Philanthropist to help address challenges with sustainability of safe water supply to rural and peri-urban areas, using market based principles.
Source: GNA