Foundation And World Vision Signs MoU

The Project Maji Foundation and World Vision Ghana, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to increase access to safe water to rural communities across the country through the Project Maji Technology.

Project Maji produces powered water kiosk pumping systems; whereas its fits-for-purpose design is ideally suited for deployment in rural communities and is designed to work reliably with almost no maintenance in the harshest environment and minimal damage to the ecosystem.

At a news conference in Accra, Mr Sunil Lalvani, the Chief Executive Officer of Project Maji said water scarcity was one of the world's leading problems affecting more than 2.1 billion people globally.

He said access to clean water continues to cause illness and stifle growth in emerging countries, however, while Ghana had made progress, many communities did not have access to safe drinking water.

Mr Lalvani said the Foundation was therefore, focused on creating sustainable access to safe drinking water in rural communities, and have so far provided over 15000 Ghanaians access to safe drinking water.

He said Project Maji had partnered numerous Ghana-based organisations including; Binatone, Volta River Authority, World Vision, Melcom Group of Companies and Poly Group; adding that 'through partnership, we are able to leverage our expertise and better serve communities'.

Mr Lalvani said his outfit was quickly becoming a leader in the water, hygiene and sanitation sector and noted that they were looking for partners and donors interested in supporting their initiatives in providing safe water to Ghanaians.

Mr Attah Arhin, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Project Technical Coordinator for World Vision Ghana, said World Vision is a child focus Christian community based organisation that believes that nothing could be more important for a child's wellbeing than access to safe water.

He noted that over the years the organisation had invested a lot, to deliver safe water to communities; as it had almost 4000 boreholes and as well provided100 limited mechanised solar powered water systems, but the challenge they kept facing was the problem of sustainability.

Mr Arhin said it was therefore, time for them to provide a lot more of the pipe schemes which were solar powered for communities to cut out the burden of operations and maintenance on communities because they would have to pay electricity bills.

He pointed out that his outfit decided to partner Project Maji Foundation, as last year they both piloted a project in the Ga West District in the Greater Accra Region, which theyreceived a positive feedback.

'This convinces us that if we scale up, we shall be able to increase access to safe water to a larger number of people, so we decided to sign an MoU with Maji for a couple of years to introduce this technology in communities that we work in particularly in schools and health centres," he added. GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA