Affordable Housing For Ghanaians Is On Course-Boniface

The Minister for Water, Resources Works and Housing, Hon Abubakar Saddique Boniface has today assured the people of Ghana that Government's effort to build adequate and affordable housing to meet the high demand caused by rapid population growth is on course.

He promised that work would be completed by the first quarter of 2008 for commissioning by the president.

The Minister was speaking at the weekly Meet-The-Press series organised by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation (MINO) in Accra.

'Various data on housing in the country disclose a backlog of about 500,000 housing units while supply figures are between 25,000 and 40,000 units per annum, as annual requirement of 100,000 units', he noted.

He said government has to date committed over 300 billion cedis in all the six sites namely Borteyman and Kpone in the Greater Accra Region, Asokore-Mampong in the Ashanti Region, Koforidua in the Eastern Region, Tamale in the Northern Region and Wa in the Upper West Region.

The Minister observed that a Draft Engineering Council Bill submitted to cabinet for consideration and approval would instill professionalism and discipline in the design and construction of buildings and also introduce a code of ethics to guide the behaviour of all actors in the engineering field.

He pointed out that construction of 836 resettlement houses for displaced inhabitants during the Keta Sea Defence Project in the Volta Region is on-going with 254 houses having been completed and occupied and 190 are at various stages of completion.

He said estimated work at about 18 million Euro and involving the removal of accumulated silt and other materials in the three feeding canals in Accra namely Kaneshie, Odaw and Agbogbloshie are nearing completion.

The waste water treatment plant which is a 75 meter long interceptor wide  and the 2.3 kilometre long new sea outfall pipe have been completed and are functioning, adding that pre feasibility studies for a sewerage treatment plant to an expanded scope of Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project (KLERP)'.

'Reduction in the incidence of flooding in some parts of Accra has been achieved as a result of channel improvement works undertaken by the Ministry on some primary drains in the city', he added.

On water projects, he stressed that government's commitment towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) of 78 percent of water coverage by 2015 and the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) objective of 85 percent coverage by 2015 is also on course.