Nkawkaw, May 12, GNA - Mr Kwabena Anane Omari-Wadie, a former assembly member of Obo Kwahu in the Kwahu South District, on Tuesday appealed to the government to replace the 36-year-old obsolete pumping machines and pipe lines of the Kwahu Water Works at Kotoso to ensure regular water supply to the over 20 communities on the Kwahu ridge. He said since the construction of the project in 1973, no major rehabilitation works had been done to replace the obsolete machines and rusty pipe lines which supply water to major towns on the Kwahu ridge. Mr Omari-Wadie made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Nkawkaw.

He said if immediate efforts were not made to replace the obsolete machines to ensure regular water supplies to 12 high institutions on the ridge there could be an outbreak of water borne diseases in the area. Mr Omari-Wadie appealed to the members of parliament for Nkawkaw, Mpraeso and Abetifi to co-operate and pressurized the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing to release funds to rehabilitate the pumping machines and undertake expansion works to ensure uninterrupted water supply.

When the District Manager of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Mr Thomson Boaten, was contacted he said funds were secured by the previous government for major rehabilitation including the replacement of obsolete pumping machines for the Kotoso, Konongo and Kumawu water works and expressed the sector that the minister was working hard to undertake the project.

He said the recent interruption of water supply to communities on the ridge was due to a burst of some pipe lines in the lake. Mr Boaten said divers were engaged to replace them adding that efforts were being made to restore water supply to the various communities on the ridge soon.