President Akufo-Addo says government has invested about US$1.4 billion to improve the water and sanitation challenges in the country. The investment, Nana Addo explained, has increased and improved access to clean water and sanitation, especially in peri-urban communities.
“The huge investments the Akufo-Addo government is making is geared towards the ‘Clean Ghana’ agenda which is aimed at seeing all the citizens having access to clean, potable water and ‘one household one toilet’ in especially low-income communities,” the President said at Ashaiman, where he commissioned the Ashaiman and Bankuman Sewerage Treatment Systems on Wednesday.
“My government purposely created the Ministry of Water and Sanitation for the special purpose of helping my government realise the ‘Clean Ghana’ agenda and I am happy to say that the ministry is living up to my expectations,” the President added.
The two systems, constructed under the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) water and sanitation projects, with funding from the World Bank, are targeted at poor and low-income urban communities where over the years, unresolved challenges in the provision of toilet facilities have resulted in several health-related issues, including cholera and typhoid.
The two refurbished sewerage treatment systems, hitherto, served only a few households at the Ashaiman TDC Quarters and Tema Industrial areas, near Bankuman, East Tema.
Given these, most people in households with no toilets either queue at the public toilets or practise open defecation.
Over 7,000 households would benefit from the two refurbished existing treatment systems in the two communities, which the president said are examples of sanitation projects across the country.
While he charged Ghanaians to have a positive attitude towards their environment, Nana Addo tasked the Ministry of Water and Sanitation and GAMA, as well as the two assemblies, to intensify their campaign for behavioural changes.
“Again, all stakeholders must ensure that these facilities are properly used and maintained very well,” he advised.
Parts of Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region, are also beneficiaries of the systems and Nana Addo said they are the beginning of the transformational journey of Ghana’s clean environment.
The Ashaiman sewerage treatment system covers a 23.9km condominium and street sewer network with a treatment capacity of 1,800m³ per day to facilitate 5,455 household connections in Ashaiman Newtown and household connections in the TDC Quarters.
The Bankuman sewer network covers 7.75km with a treatment capacity of 1,600m³ per day, to facilitate 3,600 individual household connections to serve about 17,740 low-income beneficiaries.
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