MAKING LIFE BETTER FOR OUR PEOPLE (MAY 25, 2009)

TO say that water is life is to speak a truism, for one cannot imagine existence, let alone the flourishing of life, without water which, in essence, has no substitute.
While this vital natural resource may be abundant, especially in the tropical world, not much of it is potable and, therefore, good for people to drink.
Large quantities of water, especially those held in open spaces, are contaminated as a result of the activities of human beings. These may include the flow into these water bodies of faecal and other waste organic matter or industrial effluent, all of which are injurious to the human body when ingested.
In many developing countries such as ours, less than half of the populace has access to safe and potable water. In most parts of rural Africa, the percentage even drops to as low as 10 per cent of the populace.
As a result of this limited access, large segments of the populace use contaminated water and in the process they are made prone to contracting water-borne diseases such as guinea worm, bilharzia, buruli ulcer and others.
These diseases, the cost of treatment, as well as the opportunity cost of the inability of the victims to be economically productive, exact a significant toll on national productivity.
This not only reduces the volumes and value of goods and services produced nation-wide but also impacts adversely on the people and thereby contributes to the sustenance of the vicious circle of poverty.
It is in the light of this that we are happy that the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, at the weekend launched a 17-million euro peri-urban, rural and small town water and sanitation project designed to improve both sanitation and water supply to the people of the Brong Ahafo Region (see pages 20 and 21).
There can be no doubt about the fact that for the people of the Brong Ahafo Region, this is a crucial and most welcome intervention by the government, especially given the fact that only about 53 per cent of the population has access to water that can be categorised as safe and potable. It will, no doubt, contribute to improving the conditions of life and economic status of the beneficiary communities.
We are particularly elated that as part of increasing the access of the people to this vital resource, the government has scrapped the previous policy which required beneficiary communities to contribute financially to the cost of water supply.
This will enable those who cannot enjoy the facility on account of poverty or inability to pay to benefit and in this way improve the conditions of life of the people.
There are many more areas in the country where greater numbers of our people are denied the benefit of the safe use of this vital resource and our hope, therefore, is that this kind of project will be extended to as many other areas of this country as resources will permit.
We would also want to appeal to those executing the project to endeavour to provide value for money and service for the beneficiary communities so that they will treat the facilities, when completed, as their own so that the facilities will serve them longer.
Any resource spent on improving the supply of potable water is an invaluable investment from which the whole nation will reap incalculable benefits.