Kpeve Water Pumping Station to be upgraded

Efforts are underway to double the capacity of the Kpeve Headworks of the Ghana Water Company (GWC) in the Volta Region.

The expansion would allow the extension of potable water supply to communities around Ho and beyond [S1] [1].

Mr Philip Dwamena-Boateng, the Acting Regional Chief Manager of the GWC gave the hint at a durbar to mark World Water Day at the Headworks on Friday.

World Water Day is designated by the UN to be marked across the world on March 22, every year.

This year’s celebration is on the theme “Water and Sustainable Development”.

Currently the Head-works supplies Ho, Peki and Have townships and their immediate surroundings.

Mr Dwamena-Boateng commenting on the importance of the Day said, “water is at the core of sustainable development and is critical for socio-economic development, healthy ecosystems and for human survival itself.”

He said it was vital for “reducing the global burden of disease and improving the health, welfare and productivity of populations”.

Mr Emmanuel Forster Boateng, the Volta Regional Director of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), underscored the importance of water as every year “millions of the world’s poorest people die from preventable diseases caused by inadequate and poor water supply and sanitation services”.

He said CWSA had invested heavily in water provision, currently covering “about 63.7 per cent of total population in the region”.

Mr Boateng said access to water, going with a sustained practice of personal hygiene and the observance of basic sanitation rules, held the key to improved health.

Before the durbar, selected students of Peki Senior High School and Peki Secondary Technical and some journalists were taken round the Headworks on a guided tour.

Mr Daniel Gazele, the Station Officer at the Headworks, said water production from the plant, commissioned in 1993, was under stress, as the machines were obsolete and creaky.

He said only one low-lift pump was operational.

Mr Gazele said raw water was now being pumped from mounted pontoons, through submersible pumps to the pump house as the lake has receded because of drought.

“So we have had to discard the main intake point to use the auxiliary station, which means higher cost of production,” he lamented.

At the dubar were, Mr Philip Agbezudor, the Volta Regional Manager of Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Mr Bernard Tetteh, the Regional Engineer, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) among others.