Five gallons of water for one person a day -Bagbin

Accra, May 6, GNA- Mr. Alban Bagbin, Minister of Water Resources, Wo= rks and Housing, on Thursday said the average individual domestic water consumption is five gallons a day. The difficulty, he said, was government's inability to provide this basic need for the populace coupled with the fast rate at which the population was expanding. Mr. Bagbin was speaking in Parliament on the motion to grant the Preferential Buyer's Credit Agreement between the government of Ghana and=

the government of the People's Republic of China for an amount of US$260 million. The purpose of the loan is to provide funds for the implementation o= f Kpong Water Supply Expansion Project. The loan has a grace period of five years, repayment period of 15 ye= ars with an interest rate of 2 per cent per annum, commitment fee of 0.75 per=

cent per annum, management fee of 1 per cent flat and grant element of 37= ..08 per cent. The project when completed, would increase water supply from Kpong H= ead Works to Accra and Tema to improve the reliability of potable water deliv= ery to domestic, commercial and industrial customers. Mr. Bagbin said all attempts would be made to get revenue for water leakages, and those that were not paid for adding, the water Ghana Water Company was constrained by the social aspect of water supply in which demanding payment of water bills from hospitals and other government institutions was difficult. He said under the project, a new booster station would be constructe= d at Dodowa, installation of pressure mains from Kpong to Accra through Oyi= bi and many other features which were not part of the original plan when the=

project started in 2003. He said for this reason, the price of the project had increased. Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Minority Leader, said though the loan was=

acquired for a good purpose, there was also the need to verify the debt situation of the country. He said the state of Ghana's debts situation must be examined well before more loans were taken. Mr. Albert Abongo, Member for Bongo, said domestic and industrial wa= ter supply for Accra and Tema had huge deficit. He said when the project was completed it would reduce the deficit b= y 50 per cent as the project would only provide 40 millions gallons a day o= ut of the 80 million needed. He said both domestic and the industrial users must be supplied on equal basis to create balance and harmony. Mr. Albert Kan Dapaah, Member for Afigya-Sekyere West, said governme= nt must furnish Ghanaians with the stock of public debt. He said this information would inform Ghanaians whether they were taking too many loans or not or even having the ability to settle these debts. Mr. Klutsey Avedzi, Chairman of the Parliamentary Finance Committee,=

presenting the report to the House, said the project would be completed within four years but was worried about the increase in the sum of the contract from 2006 level of US$198 million to the 2009 level of US$ 273 million, an increase of US$ 74 million over the said period. The Kpong Water Supply Expansion Project started in 2003 and was expected to complete in 2005. 06 May 10