Cape Coast, Nov14, GNA - Mr Vitus Azeem, Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, at the weekend said Ghana needed 1.49 billion dollars for the expansion of water supply to the people by the year 2020. He 811 million dollars would be required to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on water in 2015.

Mr Azeem in an interview with the GNA in Cape Coast, said 505 million dollars investment would be required to achieve the MDG rural water supply target.

He said donor pledges for 2008 to 2012 amounted to 175 million dollars and that there was a gap of 330 million dollars in meeting rural water supply. Mr Azeem said an average inflow of resources forms 35 per cent of the annual requirement and that about 90 per cent of funding in the water sector was donor-funded.

He explained that Ghana Water Company limited (GWCL) was currently supplying 551,000m3 per day as against daily demand of 939.000m3 per day with about 73 per cent of urban population having access to pipe water, while 15 per cent obtained it from wells, 22.5 per cent from natural sources and 8.4 per cent from tanker services.

Mr Azeem said 69 per cent of rural communities had access to 17,280 boreholes and 4,236 hand-dug wells.

Mr Azeem advised the public to desist from illegal connection, meter falsification and illegal payments to meter readers to enable the GWC to meet the demands of the people.

He also mentioned over invoicing , shoddy work, poor contract managements as forms of corruption which contribute to the high cost of water supply and called on Ghanaians to report such practices to the appropriate authorities.