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Turkey urged to support Oda water project

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mrs Cecilia Dapaah has appealed to Turkey to support the government to undertake the second phase of Akim Oda water project.

The €165 million project, a collaboration between the government of Ghana and Turkey, was commissioned last year, but has not yet been connected to the beneficiary towns due to lack of pipelines.

The project, which is expected to provide the communities with, at least 1.3 million gallons of water daily, has since been idle, depriving the people from getting access to portable water.

Mrs Dapaah said this when the Ambassador of Turkey to Ghana, paid a courtesy call at her office in Accra yesterday.

According to Mrs Dapaah, “the capacity of the project is huge, but there are no pipelines to supply the water to the people as expected,” adding that the cost of lying pipelines were at times more expensive than the project itself.

She said any water project should take into consideration the need of the beneficiaries hence, the need for more funds to enable Ghana Water Company extend water to the people.

Mrs Dapaah suggested the transfer of technology to enable the youth in the country acquire knowledge for the development of the country, saying “this would enable them to do their own work, get contracts on their own, and work for themselves.”

She urged Turkish companies who undertake projects in the country to empower the youth in areas of education and training.

Mrs Dapaah said measures had been put in place to get a team of experts to indentify the contaminants in water polluted by small-scale miners to avoid the outbreak of diseases among the people living close to such communities.

The Turkish Ambassador, Dr Ozlem Ergun Ulueren, said water and sanitation were important areas, and expressed her country’s desire to continue cooperating with Ghana.

She said one of the Turkish companies had already completed a water treatment plant “which goes to displays the capacity of Turkish companies to contribute to the developmental efforts of Ghana.”

Dr Ulueren added that clean water and sanitation were cross-cutting elements to Sustainable Development Goals, which the country was keen and thriving to attain, adding that “we are determine to contribute to the development efforts of Ghana”.

BY ABEDUWAA LUCY APPIAH

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