Accra, Oct. 21, GNA - President John Atta Mills has cut the sod for the commencement of the Mamponse Community Upgrading and Chemu Storm Drainage Project and called on the project implementers to ensure accountable use of the project resources and ensure that it was completed on time.

He decried the tendency to abandon projects that started out well but were cut short and subsequently became white elephants, and appealed to the stakeholders, including traditional authorities, to get fully involved and demand accountability of the use of resources committed to the project.

"And let us also not lose sight of the fact that if we mismanage project funds, the people of Ghana will one day demand accountability from us, as I demand from the previous government," President Mills said in Dansoman in Accra, as he addressed residents in the catchments area of the project.

The project costs 25 million euros, with funding from the Agence Fran=E7aise de Dev=E9loppement (AFD).

It involves the reconstruction of the approximately 4.5-kilometre Ch= emu Drain and the provision of basic infrastructure facilities in Mamponse community aimed at complementing the Accra Metropolitan Authority to enha= nce the living conditions of low income communities.

It is also to improve the natural drainage channel to mitigate flood= ing of the Mamponse community, which covers about 140 hectares with approximately 49,000 inhabitants and the Chemu drain catchment area. A similar project is scheduled for Kumasi. President Mills stressed that responsibility for the use of resources=

would be demanded by financiers and development partners, and demanded th= at the resources were put to the purposes for which they were secured. The President noted the increasing population of Accra required the development of more infrastructures and said the development of infrastructure was at the heart of his administration.

He said it was incumbent upon his Administration and subsequent ones to give attention to nation's rural and urban settlements. "Efficient infrastructure development is extremely necessary if the national economy is to be integrated and the benefits of economic growth are to be spread throughout the country," President Mills said. He gave an assurance that Government would partner the private sector and other interested parties to build a well-planned infrastructure to improve the lives of the people.