Access Development Ghana (AD-Ghana) and its partners on Tuesday, launched a sustainable rural water service delivery model at Wassa Edwenase in the Wassa East District of the Western Region.
The project, which is being implemented by AD-Ghana in partnership with Water4 (its parent organisation), the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and other partners, began in November of 2015, with the shared objective of bringing safe water services to the people of Wassa East District based on a district-wide safe water solution to 90 per cent of the population.
The Numa water system uses solar equipment for pumping and filtration at each water station to reduce environmental impact of AD-Ghana’s water service delivery chain.
As at July 2019, the partners had covered about 54,127 people with access to sustainable safe water services through establishing market-based mechanisms that would ensure water quality, quantity and reliability.
At the launch, the Operational Manager of AD-Ghana, Samuel Edusei, explained that the group, a private small water enterprise (SWE), offered a broad range of professional solutions using business principles to sustainably provide access to clean, reliable and affordable water to communities in Ghana by building infrastructure and supporting existing assets through a service delivery agreement.
He added, “We are committed to ensuring that 90 per cent of the population by 2020 can have access to safe, affordable, clean water, making it the first district in Ghana which has a population with greater access to safely managed water.”
He said AD-Ghana and its partners had 109 professionally managed public water points and 27 private water points (household connections) all with signed service delivery agreements in 70 communities in the district operated by trained water vendors and supervised by a monitoring team of quality controllers.
“All water points are installed with a pre-paid meters,” Mr Edusei said.
The Director of Programmes at Water4, Richard Lee Moore III, said the mission of his group was to empower local entrepreneurs to eradicate their water crises in partnership with communities and government, using faith and innovation to “reimage the world where safe and affordable water is available in very home, school and clinic”.
The Director of Water, Mr Donnan Tay, who spoke for the sector Minister, Ms Cecilia Dapaah, said the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 6, that is provision of water and sanitation to people, was 11 years away, adding that AD-Ghana’s social business plans were key to meet the targets.
The Deputy Ambassador of the Kingdom of Netherlands, Katjia Lasseur, said her country cherished the achievements and successes of AD-Ghana, stressing the need for the partnership to be supported, so that it could be replicated throughout Ghana and even the West African sub-region.
FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, WASSA EDWENASE
