Kwame Baah-Nuakoh, demonstrating how to operate the mechanized boreholes
The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Foundation has provided four boreholes to four communities in the Aowin and the Jomoro districts of the Western Region.
The initiative is to help provide potable water for the residents in the four communities.
The water project is a major social intervention by the GNPC Foundation to provide deprived communities across the country with clean potable water, and improve their health and livelihood.
The beneficiary communities included Ngakain in the Aowin Municipality, Old Ankasa, Nzematianu and Sowdadzem – all in the Jomoro Municipality.
The four boreholes formed part of the 20 boreholes to be installed by the GNPC Foundation in some deprived communities in the Western Region this year.
The initiative is being done under the Foundation’s 100 borehole water project across the country.
Already, four communities in the Western Region had benefitted from the borehole project.
The communities include Adenteim and Mpatado in the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality, Achonwa in the Ahanta West Municipality and Akromakrom in the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis.
Addressing the people, the General Manager of GNPC Foundation’s Sustainability Department, Kwame Baah-Nuakoh, explained that the GNPC’s water project was to assist communities to have easy access to clean water.
He indicated that most of the beneficiary communities would be within the operational areas of GNPC in the Western Region and other places where it was currently looking for oil.
He also indicated that other beneficiary communities would be in the three northern regions and the other regions where access to water is a challenge.
Mr. Baah-Nuakoh indicated that his outfit realized that most of the communities in the company’s operational areas had water challenges and that waterborne diseases were becoming prevalent.
“Recently, we organized health screening in some communities in the Western Region and realized that some waterborne disease like glaucoma was on the rise,” he asserted, adding that “hence, the decision by the Foundation to provide potable water for the deprived communities”.
He mentioned that this year, the GNPC Foundation would provide scholarships for about 1,000 students entering tertiary institutions.
“GNPC Foundation is constructing about 506-unit classroom blocks across the country to support the government’s free Senior High School (SHS) policy under the GNPC Foundation’s Education and Training project”, he told the people.
The Municipal Chief Executive of Jomoro, Ernest Kwofie, commended GNPC for the project. He therefore called on the beneficiary residents to take good care of the boreholes for them to last long.
The Chief of Ngakain, Nana Awusi Kwaw IV, who praised GNPC for the water project, promised to ensure periodic maintenance of the borehole so that the people could enjoy potable water for years.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi