President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commissioned a small town water system at Hamile with a call on the people to practise regular hand washing with soap to help win the fight against COVID-19.

The sustainable rural water and sanitation project, which begun in 2017, is financed by a credit facility from the World Bank amounting to 47,500,000 US dollars to serve the water needs of some 432,609 people.

Commissioning the project at Hamile in the Lambussie District of the Upper West Region during his two-day visit to the region, President Akufo-Addo noted that the Hamile water supply project, which was built with an amount of GH¢5,132,829.00 would provide a total of 168,444 gallons of water to 13,920 people.

He noted that the project's aim was to improve access to potable water for all in fulfillment of government’s commitment to provide access to sustainable water for all.

He said the project components included; the construction of pipe water supply systems, support for housing and drain construction, health and hygiene education and environmental and social safeguards.

President Akufo-Addo said a new 200 cubic metre high level tank and others built with the capacity of 120 cubic metres would serve as storage for the water.

He said the Upper West Region also benefited from the construction of 250 boreholes fitted with hand pumps to improve access to potable water in 240 communities in five districts including; Daffiamah-Bussie-Issa and Sissala West Districts and Lawra, Jirapa, and Nandom Municipalities.

“The Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) is also seeing to the construction of 10 more small town water systems at Pulima and Fielmuo in the Sissala West District, Eremon and Domwini in the Lawra Municipality, Koo Tuopare and Guo Zumapare in the Nandom Municipality, Ullo and Duori in the Jirapa Municipality and Issa and Bussie in the Daffiamah-Bussie-Issa District”, he said.

“These systems which have been designed will be constructed under the next phase of the World Bank Funding Facility”, he added and stressed that government was not relenting on its effort to scale up the availability of good sanitation systems in the Upper West Region.

The President noted that under the same sustainable rural water and sanitation project, CWSA had facilitated the construction of 5,355 household latrines in the region and a total of 2,014 Digni-Loo latrines provided for households to ensure that the communities had access to improved latrines.

“The region has achieved Open Defecation Free (ODF) status in 104 communities largely as a result of this intervention”, said President Akufo-Addo.

He said government had approved reforms in the rural water sector to help increase rural water target to ensure they achieved Sustainable Development Goal Six (SDG6) which demanded that they ensured access to water and sanitation for all.

According to the President, these reforms have provided employment opportunities for several people including; engineers, water system managers, accountants, and revenue and community relations officers among others in the rural water sector across the country.

“A total of 1,152 of these officers have been deployed to provide the needed technical knowledge for water system management”, President Akufo Addo disclosed.

“It is also my expectation that with the availability of potable water now, new investors will take advantage of the government One-District-One-Factory flagship programme to establish small and medium scale factories in order to open up the area for development, provide employment opportunities for the youth and improve the local economy”, he added.