Nima to get clean water

Story: Fauziatu Adam
THE sod has been cut for work to begin on a community water supply system for Nima.
The project, which is being financed by the Co-operative Housing Foundation (CHF) International and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), forms part of a three-year programme to provide five communities with potable water.
The project is expected to be completed by next year.
The $4.5-million project consists of the construction and mechanisation of a borehole, the construction of a pump house, the installation of two overhead storage tanks with two standpipes and multi taps and the construction of one Aqualite treatment plant.
The project is expected to be constructed by Olivatus Company Limited, a private construction company, and it is to provide potable water for the people of Nima, Avenor and Newtown in Accra.
 A similar project is to be undertaken in the Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis to supply water to Kojokrom and New Takoradi.
The Member of Parliament for East Ayawaso, Dr Mustapha Ahmed, who did the sod-cutting, underscored the importance of water to economic growth, development and, indeed, life.
He said the project could be seen as a very major step in fulfilling the dream of providing the beneficiary communities with adequate water.
He noted that in view of the reliance on streams, rivers and other unsafe sources of water, with the attendant adverse effects on health, the government increased support for the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to ensure safer water in rural areas and efficiency in urban water supply.
He said as a demonstration of that commitment, the CWSA received its highest budgetary allocation last year, while the five per cent various communities contributed to the total capital cost was abolished.
However, he said the regularity and quality of water supply was not guaranteed, especially in urban areas, due to frequent shortage and storage in unhygienic containers.
He, therefore, emphasised the need to set up a system to collect adequate data on water supply on a regular basis.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Alfred  Vanderpuije, urged residents of Nima to seek assistance from CHF International for their toilet facilities, since the CHF was willing to assist to construct toilets for the community.
The Country Director of the CHF International, Mr Sandrine Capelle-Manuel, said the foundation initiated the WASH-UP programme to improve water supply and sanitation infrastructure and governance through innovative and sustainable development.
“USAID recognises that although urbanisation increasingly concentrates poverty, it also provides possibilities for escaping it,” he noted.
He added that urban communities continued to grow in Ghana and that had brought about the challenge of providing adequate water supply and basic sanitation services.

5,000 To benefit from maths, science scholarship scheme

FIVE thousand students from various second-cycle institutions will this academic year benefit from the Mathematics, Science and Technology Scholarship Scheme (MSTSS) initiated by the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology.
The scheme is aimed at increasing the enrolment of students studying Mathematics, Science and Technology in various institutions across the country.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, announced this at the official launch of a website for the Ghana Mathematics Society (GMS) in Accra yesterday.
She added that the ministry had established the Ghana Space Science and Technology Centre and the Implementation of African Square Kilometre Array Programme to encourage universities in the country to introduce Bachelor of Science programmes in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
She attributed the lack of interest in Mathematics among the youth to the notion that it was a difficult subject and the wrong methodologies that had turned many students away from Mathematics at a very tender age.
She called for a change of attitude towards Mathematics among the youth and urged teachers to adopt methodologies that would encourage and motivate students to like to study the subject.
"The subject can be made attractive to students when greater emphasis is laid on its applications through practical and analytical thinking," she added.
Mrs Ayittey assured the GMS of the ministry's support to promote Mathematics education in the country and Africa as a whole.
"As a ministry responsible for Environment, Science and Technology, we do recognise the importance of Mathematics in contributing towards the achievement of the better Ghana agenda, hence the need to encourage institutions such as the GMS to promote Mathematics in the country," she added.
The President of the GMS, Prof Sitsofe E. Anku, said the reason many students shied away from Mathematics was the way it was taught and not the subject itself.
"Mathematics is doable, can be fun and loveable. That is why we at the GMS are on a mission to revamp Mathematics education in Ghana by rekindling interest in the subject to the extent that students show a natural love for Mathematics," he said.