Cecilia Abena Dapaah
The Minister of Sanitation & Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, has said the government is on course towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) VI, which is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
According to her, “The Akufo-Addo government will be the one in history to give us the quantum of water that we have never had in this country.”
Contributing to a debate on the Floor of Parliament on the report of the Works & Housing Committee on the Budget Performance Report on Tuesday, Madam Dapaah said, “The Tamale Water Project alone will move from 30,000 metric cubic metres of water to 165,000 cubic metres of water—that is additional 135,000 cubic metres of water.”
She argued that the project “is the largest water system to be put in place in Tamale” and added that “incidentally, Mr. Speaker, the first water project which produces 30,000 cubic metres of water was done by the first NPP government. So in effect, we are on course, Mr. Speaker, to achieving the SDG VI on water.”
Madam Dapaah disclosed that the policy now from the sector ministry is to make sure that the bulk water that is produced is “as close to the people as possible. That is why we have increased access directly to water and that is also the reason we have not had any case of cholera since His Excellency President Akufo-Addo assumed office.”
“We pray that there will be no cholera visited on any Ghanaian henceforth,” the minister noted and continued that a lot of successes had been chalked up in the area of sanitation.
“With the release of funding, I will agree with the Minority Leader and the Chairman of the Committee that finance should be increased to enable us to achieve the vision put out by the ministry,” she concluded.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House