The Member of Parliament for Wassa Amenfi East Constituency in the Western Region, Nicholas Amankwah, has called on the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, to solve water crises in three communities in the Constituency.
According to the Amenfi East MP, water challenges in those Communities have compelled residents to scramble for unclean drinking water exposing them to health problems.
Posing the question to the sector Minister, Madam Cecilia Abena Daapah, on the floor of Parliament, the MP said the residents faced water supply problem and needed government’s immediate intervention.
“Mr. Speaker, I rise to ask the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources when Treatment Plants Units will be installed on the Small Town Water System Project located at Wassa Japa, Nananko and Abreshia in the Amenfi East Constituency to ensure the provision of potable water for the residents.”
The sector minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah responding to the question mentioned that “the Japa Water System is a multi Community System serving Japa and Gyaamang Communities.
It’s under the management of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency”, she said.
The minister added, “The water system was completed in 2016, under the World Bank sustainable Rural Water supply project known as SRWSP with a design population of Nine thousand five hundred and seventeen”.
According to the minister, the water system is based on the construction of water from two boreholes with a combined discharge of 22 cubic meters per hour and the storage of a 150 cubic meter high-level tank.
Meanwhile, the Water and Sanitation Minister stressed in her response that, “there is an adequate supply of water to meet the demand” adding that to enhance water policy, treatment plant was installed and currently serving its purpose.
Cecilia Abena Dapaah emphasized that Nananko, Abreshia Water System is also a multi-water system serving Nananko and Abreshia Communities, indicating that the Water System was completed in 2016 under the World Bank project with a design population of five thousand nine hundred and eighty-six respectively.
Giving a detailed account, the minister recounted that water source was from the two boreholes with a combined discharge of 18 cubic meters per hour and storage of a hundred cubic meters high-level tank.
She said there’s an adequate supply of water to meet demand.
She said, “The community is currently in charge of the management of the water system and all attempts to have Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) to manage the system has been resisted by the community” she added.
However, she admitted that the Water System has a Water treatment plant to install. Still, there are some difficulties in it management and the CWSA is currently engaging the appropriate quarters to have technical and contractual issues resolved before the end of the year.
Additionally, the minister indicated that she is unaware of why the water supply to Wassa Japa is currently unhygienic for public consumption, and its associated challenges.