Vlad Falup explaining a point to the Regional Minister and his entourage
A €70 million water expansion project, expected to supply 22 million gallons of water per day to residents of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis and surrounding communities, is progressing steadily.
The existing water treatment plants at Daboase, built in the late 1960s with a capacity of six million gallons per day, and Inchaban, with a capacity of four million gallons per day, are currently unable to meet the growing demand in the metropolis.
To address the shortfall, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, in collaboration with the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), launched the €70 million water expansion project about three years ago.
An Austrian construction firm, Strabag Engineering, was contracted to execute the project.
According to the contractor, the project is about 86 percent complete.
This was revealed when the Western Regional Minister, Joseph Nelson, embarked on a familiarisation visit to the Daboase Water Treatment Plant.
During the visit, the Minister directed GWCL to urgently demarcate the plant’s buffer zones and halt all activities within them to protect the facility from encroachment by landowners who claim ignorance of the restrictions.
He also instructed chiefs in the area to suspend any planned activities within the designated buffer zones.
“The chiefs who sold land within the buffer zone claim ignorance, saying they did not know it was a restricted area,” the Minister said.
“To prevent further encroachment, I suggest the mounting of signposts to clearly mark the buffer zone as a no-go area. If these warnings are ignored, the law should take its course,” he stated.
Mr. Nelson stressed that encroachment on the buffer zones is illegal and poses a serious threat to water supply in the metropolis and surrounding communities.
A manager at Ghana Water Company Limited, Gideon Asare Annor, expressed concern about the situation, noting that parts of the project site have already been heavily encroached upon.
“As you can see, parts of the project site have been completely encroached upon, which means the source of our drinking water will likely dry up faster than usual during the dry season,” he said, adding that the establishment of buffer zones should have begun earlier to protect the water source.
Meanwhile, the Project Manager for Strabag Engineering, Vlad Falup, explained that all major structures have been completed.
“We are currently working on the high-lift pumping station, which houses the pumps that will transport water to Inchaban and other pumping stations,” he said.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi