T
he Teshie-Nungua Desalination Water project in the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly in Accra has brought great relief to residents, after several decades of suffering from acute water shortage.
The project, which was inaugurated April 17, this year, according to the residents, was a dream come true and an absolute solution to their water needs.
Some residents told the Accra File in an interview, when the paper paid a visit to the area to ascertain how the project was having impact on the people, that they are happy because scarcity of potable water is now a thing of the past.
Maame Akua Ankrah, a resident who has lived at Nungua-Addogonno all her life, added that during the period of water scarcity, it affected them greatly, as many of them had no option than to find alternative ways of getting water.
She said: “Twenty years ago, our taps stopped flowing. Then about 10 years ago, water started flowing only on Saturdays. And then things got a little better, so we started having water on Wednesdays and weekends. The water would flow in little drops and my mum and I would stay up all night to fill our barrels.”
According to her, the schedule was even not consistent. The taps would sometimes not run for about three weeks, adding that most of the residents devised diverse means of getting water.
The situation was worse when water flowed only once every fortnight. “We had to go to Spintex to buy water from tankers. GH¢70 worth of water lasted me and my wife only two weeks,” another resident, Patrick Asante-Antwi, said.
He added that some residents resorted to fetching water from open gutters and burst pipes. This practice exposed people to diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid, dysentery and Hepatitis A, health experts say.
The desalination project at Teshie-Nungua is expected to produce about 13 million gallons of water daily, which is enough to cater for the over 500,000 residents in Teshie-Nungua, Baatsona, Sakumono, and Tsuibleo among others.
The project was a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the Government of Ghana, in which Stanbic Bank played an integral role of providing funding to complete the project.
According to the Executive Business Development of Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited, Samuel Botchway, the bank is committed to supporting transactions that promise significant social impact to communities. “The Teshie desalination project demonstrates the bank’s commitment to enhance infrastructure and development for the communities within which we operate.”
“In recent times, we have been involved in the financing of [the] construction of various residential and office properties, as well as shopping malls such the Accra Mall and the West Hill Mall. The bank also co-arranged financing for the CenpowerKpone, an independent power project, to increase electricity generation capacity, and make power more available to support economic growth,” he stressed.
“Over the years, we have played a key role in raising the required financing [to] support Ghana Cocoa Board’s programme to procure cocoa from [farm] gates for exports. Again, we have provided various financing facilities for the expansion of Ghana Airports Company Limited’s infrastructure and the procurement of critical equipment. Stanbic, thus, remains [a] key partner to the people of Ghana, as we continue to offer [a] wide range of financing solutions for various infrastructure projects in Ghana.”