Bagbin slams society for staying aloof about water issues
Mr Alban Bagbin, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing on Friday slammed society for staying passive as potable water was plundered right before their eyes.
He wondered why the citizenry would not give hints to the authorities to stop the “vandalism on the water distribution networks”, where people act at will and sometimes constructing bunkers, into which they channel water illegally for sale.
Mr Bagbin was giving a blueprint on the water sector in the Volta Region, at a forum attended by representatives of 17 water-provision-stakeholder institutions in the region.
He said some people clandestinely implant booster pumps on the distributions lines, pulling out water in volumes thus cuttings supply to many others.
Mr Bagbin said people only grumble about these acts but failed to report the culprits.
He asked management of water systems and the public to be wary of water tanker operators as many could be siphoning water from hydrants.
The Minister described the Volta Region as “awash with water resources” and needed the wherewithal to expand the existing systems, build new ones and improve distribution.
He said the success rate of flow of water from boreholes was 88 per cent in the region when it was as low as 45 per cent in the Northern Region.
Mr Bagbin noted that while it had been documented that the region’s water resources could cater for “its domestic, industrial and agricultural needs for a long time to come” some negative human activities along the banks of the Volta Lake and Dayi River and elsewhere raised concerns.
He listed some of these activities as disposal of solid and liquid waste into the rivers, improper land use and proliferation of aquatic weeds in some water bodies, illegal aquaculture and lack of regulations to tackle some of these infractions.
Mr Bagbin said government programmes on the provision of water for the people was striding ahead of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
He said whereas the MDG envisaged a national access in Urban Water Supply of 76 per cent by 2015, government’s target was 85 per cent by the same year, leading to universal coverage by 2025.
Mr Bagbin said the urban water coverage for the Volta Region as at 2009 was 39 per cent as against the national average of 59 per cent.
The Minister said “with the exception of Ho which was well catered for, all the other 17 urban water supply systems have been included in the strategic investment programme to meet the water demands of the population up to and beyond 2025.”
He said in 2009, 62.63 per cent (1,095,464) of the rural population of the region had access to potable water, out of a total population of 1,749,026 which was above the national average of 58.97 per cent.
Mr Bagbin said the systems serving these communities in the region include 2,249 boreholes.
The Minister’s one hour delivery also tackled the way forward under which he listed a comprehensive national development programme on water as among the important components.
He also mentioned maintenance, sustainability of the systems, advocacy and public awareness creation on the sector.
Mr Bagbin said water was a social good at the same time a commodity with value that must be appreciated by users.
The Minister mentioned the country’s development partners as kingpins in the water delivery programmes, sometimes supplying 97 per cent of the capital investments in the sector.
Speakers during an open forum were mainly Municipal and District Chief Executive who drew the attention of the Minister to the potable water needs of their assemblies.
Mr Kweku Botwe, Acting Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited, said a development programme beginning in 2011 would focus on the dredging of dams and raising of embankments.
He explained that in the Volta Region the water systems have the capacities to be transformed to cover more areas.
Mr Robert K. D. Van-Ess, Director Technical Services of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency in reply to concerns by Mr Michael Adzaho, District Chief Executive for Adaklu-Anyigbe said the Member of Parliament for the area had initiated some contacts to bring water to the district.
Mr Joseph Amenowode, Regional Minister said dry boreholes, lack of resources for maintenance and high power tariffs were some of the problems facing communities in the management of their water systems.
Source: GNA