Members of the Steering Committee for Tamale Water Fund
Steering Committee for Tamale Water Fund has been inaugurated in the Northern region.
The members of the Steering Committee are Joachim Ayiiwe Abungba, Principal Basin Officer for the Black Volta Basin , Donnan Kobla Tay, Director of Water at Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, Nana Kofi Gyimah, Development Planning Officer-Northern Regional Planning Co-ord Unit, Akanyani Beata Awinpoka, Programmes Director of Afram Plains Development Organization(APDO).
Others are ING. Jacob Z. Yendor , Deputy Managing Director (Operations), Ghana Water Company Limited.
The Steering Committee of the Tamale Water Fund is expected to provide overall policy direction and guidance to meet financial and water security goals.
Addressing participants at the inauguration, the Northern Regional Minister, Shani Alhassan Shaibu, said Tamale metropolis rely mainly on pipe-borne water for drinking and other domestic uses adding that daily demand for water in 2020 was estimated at more than 60,000 cubic meters though the installation capacity at the Dalun treatment plant is 45,000 cubic meters.
“Ghana Water Company Limited currently produces averagely only 28,000 cubic meters of water daily, losing 27,000 of treated water for backwashing and dislodging processes due to high turbidity of the raw water.”
The Minister indicated that conserving non-revenue water loss of about 35%, the total daily required production is estimated at about 92,000 cubic meters which clearly shows that water is increasingly becoming scarce for their daily lives and assured that government is committed to meeting the universal water coverage by 2030 on line with the sustainable development goal 6.
He noted that within the urban space, since 2019, the government has undertaken several interventions in the water sector expansion saying the recent commitment to undertake the construction and expansion of water abstraction and treatment plants in Yendi, Damongo, and Yapei, as well as the construction of the Pwalugu multi-purpose dam, are some of the several key investments government is making to improve upon the water supply situation.
” Government believes that investments to improve water security challenges will help enhance human dignity while reducing expenses and the burden on health systems and contribute to easing the burden on women who travel long distances to access water.”
According to the Minister, the White Volta River, the main source of water to Tamale city is experiencing high levels of siltation mainly due to sand mining activities in and along its banks and increased agricultural practices noting that these are threatening the river’s future capacity for supplying the required volume of water to the metropolis and its environs.
“The river has been rendered shallow and is unable to contain the volume of water that flows into it during the rainy season resulting in floods.”
The Northern Regional Minister was optimistic that the Tamale Water Fund would create a dependable funding stream for strategic financing for nature-based restoration projects to meet the water quantity and quality goals and ecosystem protection in the White Volta Basin.
” I wish to assure the Steering committee of the full support and collaboration of the Regional Coordinating Council and I encourage everyone, the households and communities, district assemblies, traditional leaders, the private sector, development partners, and others to support the activities of the committee on finding lasting solutions to Tamale’s water security challenges.”
The Head of Programs of the Catholic Relief Services(CRS), Carolyn Edlebeck , said the commitment to urban resilience is a priority area in Catholic Relief Services Regional and Country Strategic Plans seeking to catalyze transformational change at scale to build a more just, equitable and prosperous world for all.
“The Tamale Water Fund would serve as a sustainable source of funding towards high-impact restoration and conservation projects in the watershed, consistent with the policy action in the NWP that seeks to promote the protection and conservation of water resources using cleaner and efficient technologies, effective waste management and sound land management and agricultural practices.”
She said Catholic Relief Services(CRS), is committed to working closely with the steering committee and key stakeholders by providing interim management and administrative support to the Tamale Water Fund until it becomes fully functional with its staff.
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale