The proposed Sunyani Water Supply Expansion Project would cost over $243 million, Hanson Akutteh Mensah, of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), has announced.
Mr Mensah, who is the Brong-Ahafo Regional Water Quality Assurance Manager, was making a presentation at a public hearing programme on the potential environmental impacts of the proposed project at Abesim, near Sunyani, particularly, on the number of persons, and communities.
The programme, jointly organized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the GWCL provided an opportunity for the proponent to present the proposed project, potential impacts and mitigation measures and to address key public concerns that might be raised by the affected communities and experts.
The GWCL has signed a contract with Messrs China International Water and Electric Corporation towards the execution of the project, while Sal Consult, an environmental engineering consulting firm in Accra, is the Consultant.
It would be funded by the government of Ghana with a loan from Eximbank of China.
The project will take 38 months to complete but the commencement and completion dates are not yet known because feasibility studies are still being conducted.
He said the GWCL supplied potable water to the Sunyani Municipality and 16 other surrounding towns and villages in the Sunyani West and Tano North Districts.
The significant expansion of the water treatment facilities, he said, was therefore, needed to meet both current and future water demands.
A dam will, consequently, be constructed over the Tano River at a location close to the present treatment plant at Abesim, near Sunyani, Mr Mensah said.
At the ensuing forum, Oboaman Bofotia Boa-Amponsem II, ‘Kurontihene’ of Sunyani, lauded the project as being ‘very good and significant’ to enhance the lives of people in the beneficiary towns and villages.
Source: GNA
