Residents of Amasaman benefit from GAMA projects

Amasaman (GAR), April 29, GNA - One hundred and twenty out of 276 registered households in Amasaman and its surroundings are benefitting from the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area-Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP).

Mr Samuel N. Larweh, the Municipal Planning Officer and Co-ordinating Officer of GAMA projects of the Ga West Municipality disclosed this at a Town Hall Meeting at Amasaman on Friday.

The GAMA-SWP is undertaking the provision of institutional and household toilets and improved water supply at half price in the 11 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Greater Accra.

The project is under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and is being sponsored by the World Bank with a grant of 150 million dollars.

Mr Larweh said 43 schools have been earmarked to benefit from the GAMA-SWP and currently 31 of the projects were ongoing.

Mr Jonathan Aboagye from the Social Accountability Unit of the Ministry of Local Government explained that 100 million dollars of the World Bank grant of 150 million dollars would go into the provision of the half price toilet facility while the 50 million dollars is spent to improve water supply.

He said the half price toilet have different categories and the highest cost among them was 4,000 Ghana cedis which interested persons would pay 50 per cent of it and the Government bore the other half.

Mr Aboagye said the government was providing the schools under the GAMA project with toilet and water, especially to prevent girls from absenting themselves from school during their menstrual period.

'There is a saying that what men can do women can equally do it better and we do not want a situation that when the boys are in school learning, the girls will be at home due to their menstruation,' he said.

Mr Aboagye urged women to reduce the buying of clothing and men to curb the excessive spending on alcoholic beverages and rather invest such monies to help their families and society at large to acquire toilet in their homes.

Participants at the forum asked the assemblies to be proactive in the dissemination of information to the citizenry to create awareness on initiatives that would improve their living standards.

They called on the implementers of the GAMA project not to be bias in the provision of the toilet facilities and urged that all unauthorised structures such as stores and containers on government lands be cleared to make way for the construction of septic tanks to serve the communities.

GNA