Eleven more communities benefit from Oguaa water supply.

Water for Life Charity, a foundation founded by Vitens, the water utility in the Netherlands, has extended water supply from the Sekyere-Hemang water treatment plant, which has been provided for the expansion of Cape Coast water supply, to 11 more communities in the Central and Western regions, at a cost of GH¢190,000.

A total of 13,500 people, are expected to have potable water in the beneficiary communities, which include Sekyere-Hemang, Aburadzewuramu, Bethlehem and Ebukrom-Junction in the Western Region and Ebukrom, Duabor, Dutch-Komenda, Abrem-Agona and Nsadwir in the Central Region.

The project was executed for the foundation by Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL) and Royal Haskoning, the contractors which undertook the construction of the Sekyere-Hemang treatment plant and the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA).

It involved the laying of new distribution pipelines, provision of stand pipes and the training of community mechanics for the maintenance of the taps.

A two-unit kindergarten classroom block has also been provided at Sekyere-Hemang by the AVRL as part of its social services.

Inaugurating the water systems at separate ceremonies at Sekyere-Hemang and Dutch-Komenda, on Tuesday, the Managing Director of AVRL, Mr Andrew Barber, said Water for Life, provides potable water for poor communities without potable water throughout the world.

He said Nsuatre in the Brong-Ahafo region was the first community to be given such assistance in the country, with a total of 5,000 people benefiting, adding that the provision of water in the 11 communities in the two regions, was the second of such projects to be undertaken.

Mr Barber announced that by the early part of next year, Water for Life in collaboration with AVRL would have spent more than one million Ghana Cedis for the provision of potable water for over 50,000 people in seven deprived communities throughout the country.

He however explained to the beneficiary communities that they would have to pay for the water, to enable them maintain the treatment plant and for the payment of electricity supply to the plant.

The out-going Chairman and Chief Executive of Vitens, Mr Van Winkelen, expressed the hope that the water supply provided for the communities would last long.

He explained that the amount for the project was made possible by customers of Vitens in his country, who voluntary added a “little” amount to their water bills to help poor deprived communities have safe drinking water.

Mr Winkelen, advised parents to teach their children good hygiene, adding that children are the future.

The Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Mr Kweku Botwe, expressed concern about the spate at which some persons were “stealing water” and selling to others at exorbitant rates, and advised that anyone who wants to connect water to their premises should do so through the required processes.

He urged the school children to endeavour to study hard to enable them grow up as responsible citizens.

The Central Regional Minister, Nana Ato Arthur, recounted efforts being made by the government for the improvement of water supply systems and other social interventions including the NHIS.

He urged the beneficiary communities to endeavour to take good care of the water facility, and expressed gratitude to the Dutch government for its immense assistance to the improvement of water supply to areas like Baifikrom, Agona-Kwanyako and Kasoa, and for its readiness to help improve supply to Assin-Fosu.

The Chief of Dutch Komenda, Nana Munumkum III, also expressed gratitude for the provision of water for the town, which he said had been relying on a salty well as its only source of water for the past nine years.

He expressed the hope that with the provision of the project, the relationship between his people and the Dutch, who settled in the town and left in 1868, would be restored. Nana Arthur, later cut the sod for the construction of a pavilion for the town for which he has provided 100 bags of cement.