Potable Water For Jeffisi

Mr Pan-Kyu Park, leader of the Korean delegation (right), presenting the project document to Nii Nortey Dua (middle). Looking on is the Chief Director of Ghana's Environment Ministry, Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu,

Mr Pan-Kyu Park, leader of the Korean delegation (right), presenting the project document to Nii Nortey Dua (middle). Looking on is the Chief Director of Ghana's Environment Ministry, Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu, Work on a water project to serve the people of Jeffisi, a community in the Sissala West District in the Upper West Region, has been completed.

The $350,000 project which would be inaugurated Wednesday, would supply 100 tonnes of filtered water to the community with a population of about 45,000, who hitherto, depended on polluted water for domestic and commercial activities.

A six-member delegation from the Environmental Industry Division of the Ministry of Environment of the People’s Republic of Korea that funded the project, met with Ghana's Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Nii Nortey Dua, in Accra Tuesday to update the government on the status of the project.

The visit of the delegation, led by the Deputy Director of the Korean organisation, Mr Pan-Kyu Park, was also to be used to explore possible avenues of supporting the Ghana Government, in areas that would improve water supply.

Mr Park told the minister that the project which was the first of its kind in West Africa by the Korean Government, was selected out of some recommended sites by Ghana's Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing.

The choice of the area was also influenced by an earlier meeting between officials of the two organisations that identified the beneficiary community as having the most polluted water body in the region.

Mr Park also explained that the low level of nitrogen and the hardness of the water system in the area informed their decision to set up the project for the Jeffisi community.

Nii Nortey Dua thanked the delegation for its support in improving the water situation in the Upper West Region, underlining that the ministry fully supported any initiative from Ghana’s development partners that had the potential to improve the living conditions of the people.

Describing the Upper West as a region with a huge potential to attract a large population, Nii Nortey Dua said given the number of water bodies in the area, the project would also serve the purpose of identifying challenges that came with replicating the water system in other regions.

Nii Nortey Dua recalled the donation of a small scale water treatment machine to Jeffisi last year by the Koreans and reminded the delegation of ongoing water projects in Wa in the Upper West and Techiman in the Brong Ahafo regions, which the government was seeking their support to complete.