DEPRIVED TANO RIVER COMMUNITIES GET FACILITIES (PAGE 53)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) have completed water and sanitation facilities for 10 deprived communities along the Tano River in the Western Region of Ghana and the Aboisso Prefecture in Cote d’lvoire at the cost of US$500,000.
The facilities, which were provided under the Water and Development Alliance (WADA) through CARE International, is to serve as an incentive to improve water resources management within the Tano River Basin.
WADA, a joint initiative between USAID and the Coca-Cola Company, in collaboration with the Ghana/Cote d’lvoire Transboundary Community Water Management Project, through CARE International, executed the projects, with funding from USAID and the Coca-Cola Foundation.
The beneficiary communities are Edusuazo and Ghana Nungua in the Jomoro District, Pantooso in the Wassa Amenfi East District, Jomoro in the Aowin-Suaman District and Nsawora in the Sefwi Wiawso District, all in the Western Region.
The rest are M’Possa, CI Noungoua, Saykro, Ehania and Kongodjan in Cote d’lvoire.
The projects in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire include the construction of five boreholes fitted with hand pumps, a hand-dug well fitted with a hand pump and a mechanised borehole system.
The project also rehabilitated a hand pump and constructed nine places of convenience fitted with rain harvesting and hand-washing facilities in nine basic schools.
Through the provision of teaching and learning materials, hygiene education will be taught in the basic schools, since hygiene and sanitation training has been conducted for 98 school teachers from five communities each in the Western Region of Ghana and the Aboisso Prefecture in Cote d’Ivoire.
The WADA intervention has increased access to potable water for 12,600 people and improved sanitation for 2,600 pupils in the 10 beneficiary communities and is expected to reduce the incidence of water and sanitation related diseases in the beneficiary communities and also improve afforestation along the Tano River Basin.
Speaking at a ceremony to hand over the projects at Ghana Nungua in the Jomoro District, the Franchise Manager of Coca-Cola Equatorial Limited, Mr Philippe Ayivor, said the company and the TCCAF were pleased to be associated with the water and development alliance.
"With the successful execution of these projects, the primary objective of providing safe water and essential sanitation facilities for the good people of the beneficiary communities is now a reality," he said.
Mr Ayivor said the company recognised that people and the environment were central to all business activities and that the success of all businesses was inexorably linked to the well-being and prosperity of the communities in which they operated.
"Therefore, our community or social investments are not mere gestures but are structured to improve living conditions, empower people and drive sustainable development,” he explained.
Mr Ayivor emphasised that the provision of safe water for the communities was fundamental to the quest for healthy and prosperous communities envisioned under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Programme Co-ordinator of CARE International (Forest and Natural Resource), Mr Albert Katako, thanked the benefactors for the initiative and urged the beneficiary communities to resolve to maintain and keep the facilities working.
The Jomoro District Co-ordinating Director, Mr R.A. Acheampong, said the assembly would create the enabling environment for the development partners to encourage them to assist in the development of the communities.
The Chief of Ghana Nungua, Nana Aboa Ebenle II, asked for more of the water facility to serve the whole community, since the one borehole would not serve the people effectively.
He also appealed to the benefactors to assist the community to implement its electricity project.