Tamale, Dec.8, GNA - Mr. Alban Bagbin, the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, has suggested that beverage companies should be made to pay commercial rates for water they use in manufacturing their products.

He said beverage companies use about 70 percent of water in manufacturing their products and make huge profits out of the water but paid the same rate with domestic users. Mr. Bagbin was addressing a forum in Tamale on Tuesday on the water sector in the Northern Region and steps government was taking to address the supply of potable water to the citizenry.

The Minister said although water had been regarded as a right, it must also be considered as a commercial commodity which comes at a cost and called for modalities to ensure commercial users pay equally for the usage. He appealed to Ghanaians to assist the government in its quest at sustaining, improving and maintaining the water systems adding that the Northern Region might face huge water supply challenges if nothing was done to rehabilitate the existing water supply systems.

He said the region had three urban water supply systems at Tamale, Yendi and Damango and these systems needed some rehabilitation else the region in three years time might have no access to potable water supply. Mr Bagbin said the Damongo water supply system would be rehabilitated at the cost of US$15.5m while Yendi would be rehabilitated at the cost of US$28.0m. "The Ministry is currently in negotiations with various funding bodies including Hapoalim Bank of Israel, Hidrobiente Group, African Development Bank and two Chinese companies to provide funding for further expansion of the above projects", he said.

The Minister said the government was developing a comprehensive national development programme embracing the three sub sectors of water resources conservation and management, rural and small sector and urban water delivery to address the problems of water supply in the country to meet the Millennium Development Goal targets.

Mr. Moses Bukari Mabengba, the Northern Regional Minister, said although the government had made a lot of interventions in the water sector, the region was still facing serious challenges in water provision. He said the rate of delivery of water and sanitation facilities had not kept pace with the increasing demand by the growing population and settlements in the region.

Mr Mabengba said only about 60 percent of the rural and peri-urban population had access to safe water leaving the un-served population at the mercy of water borne diseases. Mr. Mabengba commended CIDA, UNICEF, CWSA, ADRA and other development partners for their contributions towards the provision of water at parts of the region. 08 Dec 10