A Water Supply Expansion project, executed at the cost of GH¢2, 553,145.33 was on Monday inaugurated at Borigo in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region.The water project, sponsored by the WaterAid Ghana, an international non-profit organisation, and executed by the Pump Tech Ltd, would bring relief to more than 90, 000 members of the district who, hitherto, did not have access to safe and potable drinking water.Speaking at the hand-over ceremony at Borigo, a community under Bongo over the weekend, the Acting Upper East Regional Director for the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Emmanuel Oppong, said the inauguration of the project marked a significant milestone in the organisation's shared resolve to improving access to safe and sustainable water supply in Bongo and other districts and municipalities in the region.Mr Oppong who represented the Chief Execitive Officer (CEO) for the CWSA, Vincent Senam Kuagbenu, noted that the project was a mechanised system meant to supply water to scores of communities, and would address the critical water crisis affecting the folk in the district.More important, he said, the issue of high fluoride content in many groundwater sources, which posed health hazards to the people, especially children, would be a thing of the past."These challenges required urgent and targeted intervention to safeguard the health and well-being of the people of Bongo.
With funding from WaterAid Ghana and technical leadership from the CWSA, the project was initiated from a systematic and science-based source," Mr Oppong disclosed.Of a total of 11 boreholes sampled for fluoride testing, the Acting Director stated that seven met the acceptable fluoride threshold of less than 1.5 mg, and that, "these seven boreholes were subsequently redeveloped and their use assessed through air lifts and pumping tests, and eventually, two boreholes with a sustainable use of 4.3 m3 hour were selected for the mechanisation".Country Director for WaterAid Ghana, Ms Ewurabena Akofur-Yanyi, expressed her profound gratitude to the Pump Tech Ltd for its proactiveness in the execution of the contract in less than a year.According to her, the WaterAid Ghana had supported the Bongo District and its environs with developmental projects in many sectors of the economy, and would remain committed to ensuring there was a significant improvement in water supply in the area.The Paramount Chief for the Bongo Traditional Area, Naba Baba Salifu Atamale Lemyaarum, thanked the WaterAid Ghana for the kind initiative, and brought to the fore that the fluoride phenomenon affecting water in the area was very serious that required all hands on the wheel to get it rectified for the good of the people.Alhaji Ibrahim Habila, Coordinating Director for the Bongo District, asked the people in the beneficiary communities to sustain the project. FROM FRANCIS DABRE DABANG, BORIGO
