Florence Afriyie Mensah
Kumasi, Jan.29, GNA – The Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area Sanitation and Water Project has, as of the end of 2023, built 10,917 household toilet facilities in the operational areas.
So far, the project has constructed 16,720 toilet facilities since its inception in late 2020.
This represents 56 per cent of the targeted 30,000 household toilets to be constructed by the end of December 2024.
Mr. George Asiedu, Project Coordinator, GKMA-SWP, briefing the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi, was optimistic that the team would complete a total of 13,280 in 2024 to achieve the project’s goal.
The government of Ghana, acting through the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, received US$125m from the World Bank towards the implementation of the GKMA-SWP with the objective of ‘increasing access to improved sanitation and improved water supply in Greater Kumasi, with emphasis on low-income communities, and to strengthen the management of environmental sanitation.
The project was first implemented in eight municipalities in the greater Kumasi but has been partially extended to about eight other peripheral communities to enhance and improve sanitation in the region.
Mr Asiedu said the team would work hard to construct an average of 1,022 household toilets every month this year to expedite the project plans.
Components of the project include increasing access to sanitation services in priority low-income areas; and supporting the provision of household toilets, school, and healthcare sanitation facilities.
Every eligible low-income household will be supported with 70 per cent of the cost of household toilets.
Again, the project supports the expansion of the water distribution network in GKMA to provide piped water to an estimated 150,000 people living in low-income urban communities.
About 120 km of pipeline will be laid and 10,000 new households will be connected to Ghana Water Company Limited’s (GWCL) water system.
The other component is to support the improvement of sanitation services, including wastewater and septic sludge management investments, planning liquid waste management and drainage, and investment in bio-digester sludge processing plants.
GNA