Stephen Odoi-Larbi reporting
Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Hon. Sampson Ahi has promised extending portable pipe-borne water to Ekrawfo and four other communities in Ekumfi District, following the completion and handing over of the Essakyir Water Supply Project in March 2014.
Ekrawfo, which was previously connected with pipe-borne water, was disconnected during the construction of the road network that links Essakyir to Ajumako.
Surprisingly, the community (Ekrawfo), together with Atabenadze, Atakwaa and Gyinankoma were not factored in the €21.8 million Essakyir Water Supply Project.
Essakyir, the host community of the water works, was also ignored in the multi-million euro project funded by the DENYS NV of Belgium.
The Essakyir Water Supply project, which started on September 1, 2011, was initially billed to supply water to the following communities -Ekumfi, Otuam, Mumford, Dago, Mbroboto, Ekumpoano, Muna, Aboano, Sefara, Essuehyia, Akra, Asaafa, Etwaa, Nakwa, Asokwa, Abeka, Swedru and other communities at the tail end of the distribution network of Winneba, Balikrom and Kwanyako Water Treatment Plants.
However, Hon. Ahi, addressing the durbar to celebrate this year’s Akwambo Festival at Ekrawfo last Saturday, on behalf of the sector minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda, said the plight of the people of Ekrawfo and surrounding communities would be a thing of the past, since the government has factored them in its plans.
The government, he noted, was currently looking for funding from a Danish company to finance the extension of the project to cover the deprived communities which only needed laid pipes to be connected to the main pumping station at Essakyir.
The Essakyir Water Supply Project, which is 97% complete, according to Hon. Ahi, seeks to produce 3.2 million gallons of water a day to serve an estimated population of 163,000.
He told the gathering that “since one cannot live without water”, the contractor has been directed to speed up work on the completion of the project and hand it over by March, 2014.
The District Chief Executive of Ekumfi, Hon. Ibrahim Dawson, commenting on the project said the Assembly has made a budget for two hundred pipes to ensure that the deprived communities in the district were connected to potable water.
“When the pipe is connected from Essakyir, the remaining deprived communities will be connected. That is the priority of the Assembly,” he noted.
He also promised one hundred and fifty bags of cement and some roofing sheets to the people of Ekrawfo to help them complete their community center.
The Member of Parliament for the area, Hon. Abeiku Crentsil said the Essakyir Water Supply Project when completed, would enhance water supply to the communities in the district and would no longer depend on other communities for supply.