More than 25,000 people in the beneficiary communities in the region will now have access to potable water.

The beneficiary communities include Kparekpare, Akpafu Mempeasem, Biakpa, Tsiame, Ho Kpodzi, Baglo Senior High School (SHS) and Baptist Vocational Training Centre all in the Volta Region.

The boreholes were constructed by the Alhaji Adamu Iddrisu TRB Foundation, the charity wing of the bank. The recent inauguration of boreholes in the Volta Region brings to 110, the total number of boreholes constructed by the bank through its foundation across the country since it was established in 2014.

The Managing Director of the bank, Mr Osei Asafo-Adjei, said the projects were the foundation’s dream becoming a reality.

“This is in fulfilment of the vision of the founder of the foundation, the late Alhaji Adamu Iddrisu, to ease the plight of people in deprived communities,” he the said.

He said the gesture was in conformity with the bank’s corporate social responsibility.

“Our goal is to support efforts aimed at preventing conditions that bring about diseases. By having access to potable drinking water, the people will be protected from waterborne diseases and this will ultimately relieve them of the payment of hospital bills and related costs,” he noted.

Supporting deprived communities

A member of the Board of Trustees of the foundation, Reverend Dr Nii Amoo Darku, said the borehole facility was under the foundation’s water for life project aimed at helping to reduce the incidence of diseases.

He said Alhaji Adamu Iddrisu, who died recently, conceived the idea of supporting deprived communities with basic amenities to improve on their living conditions.

Rev. Darku observed that it was the determination of the foundation to construct 60 boreholes every year for communities across the country that were badly in need of water, adding that the foundation hoped to put up six boreholes in each region of the country each year.

Gratitude 

The Assemblyman of the Akpafu Mempeasem Electoral Area, Mr Andrew Asasenkasa, said before the project came into being, people had to walk about 10 kilometres in search of water and even what they got was not hygienic.

“We are aware that inaccessibility to potable water, health and sanitation services is hazardous to our health. Poor health undermines our productivity by limiting our ability to work and also attend school, thereby perpetuating the cycle of poverty,” he said.

“We are aware that all communities that are beneficiaries of this facility need more than what you have provided us today. We are also aware that it is your wish to extend to other communities, but as Oliver Twist, we need more of these boreholes,” he requested.