The Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah has announced that the Agordome-Keta water expansion will be ready for use in April 2023.
The Minister said this when she toured the facility, in the South Tongu District, with the technical team and media to inspect the progress of work.
The €85 million project, whose sod was cut by President Akufo-Addo in August 2020, and which will serve approximately 440 million residents in the southern part of the Volta Region, was scheduled to be completed in December 2023. However, it is now expected to be completed in April.
In an interview with the media, Madam Abena Dapaah noted that she is impressed with the progress of work so far.
She stated that instead of the 26% of work completed that was initially communicated to her, they are now able to reach 32%.
”We are here to visit the site to make sure they are on course. And then, the quality of work is also good. We initially had a report that the work done was 26% but coming to the site, they have added more to make it 32% since different sections have different levels of completion,” she said.
Madam Abena Dapaah said that the new plant, which is supposed to give 7.7 million gallons of water per day, is almost 60% done.
She commended the contractors and team for going the extra mile for soft loans in order to make sure work continues.
“I am highly grateful to the contractors and happy that they were able to get soft loans to get the work done and this is because they believe in Ghana that things will get better soon,” she said.
She however noted that the project stalled because of the Russia-Ukraine war and Covid-19, which made it almost impossible for machinery and other items they ordered to be shipped to Ghana.
The Project Supervisor, Eng. Kwabena Adu Koranteng told the media that, the total capacity when fully done together with the existing system, will be 9.3 million gallons per day and 60% of work including procurement of goods and services is done.
The Agordome-Keta Rehabilitation and Expansion Water Supply project when done will serve 65 communities including Agordome, Sogakofe, Keta, Anloga, Kpotame, Vume, Tefle, Sokpoe, Dabala and their adjourning communities with about 65km of piping to supply water not just for the existing population, but for the future as well.
The Sanitation Minister, prior to the tour, inspected the water and sanitation project at the youth resource centre in Ho where the 2023 Independence Day celebration will be held.