KOFORIDUA WATER SHORTANGE TO END DEC (BACK PAGE)

THE perennial shortage of water in Koforidua and other parts of the Eastern Region will come to an end by December, this year.
Under the Koforidua Water Project which is now 85 per cent complete, 3.5 million gallons of water would be pumped per day from the Volta Lake near Asesewa in the Upper Manya District to augment the 1.2 million gallons currently being drawn from the Densu and Suyhen rivers.
The project is being funded by the Belgian Government and executed by Denys Corporation also of Belgium.
Currently the first phase, which involve the construction of a treatment plant at Bukornor Junction and the laying of the main pipeline from the Volta Lake, has been completed while the distribution lines at Koforidua and booster stations along the main pipeline are being done.
According to Mr Okomen Mensah of Ekobil Consult, the consultancy firm of the project, Koforidua would definitely be supplied with water from the lake in December this year.
Mr Mensah, who was briefing the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, at the treatment site at Bukornor Junction, said the project, which started in May last year, was six months ahead of schedule.
He said the third phase of extending the project to New Tafo and Osiem, both in the East Akyem Municipality, would commence in January next year.
The Regional Minister, who was at the sites of the treatment plant and the intake and distribution lines, expressed his satisfaction with the pace of work.
He, however, asked the company to speed up the process of compensation to farmers whose lands were affected.
Mr Ofosu Ampofo also asked Denys Corporation to see how best it could provide a social amenity such as a school for the people at Bukornor junction to serve as a souvenir for the company in the area.
The Regional Minister earlier addressed workers of Aqua Vittens Rand, which is responsible for urban water, and gave them the assurance that his outfit would support it to make good drinking water available for the people.
That was after the Distribution Manager, Mr Asante Ansah, and other top officials had briefed the Regional Minister on the water supply situation in the region.
According to them, the company was facing a lot of challenges, especially contamination of water from the Birim River, which supplies water for Anyinam and its environs, due to the activities of illegal gold miners, as well as old pipelines in some areas that had not been rehabilitated for a long period.