EPA TRAINS COMMUNITIES ON WATER MANAGEMENT (PAGE 42, JULY 29, 2010)

THE Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has held a two-day training workshop to build the capacity of district assemblies and community members to manage water and sanitation facilities being provided under the Northern Region Small Towns Water and Sanitation (NORST) project.
The training, which took place in Tamale, brought together community stakeholders from Yendi, Karaga, Nanumba North and Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo, who discussed various environmental hazards that pose a challenge to water and sanitation in their respective communities.
These include bush burning, deforestation, surface mining, over-grazing, poor sanitation, poor agronomic practices and misuse of agro-chemicals.
The NORST project is a seven-year development project, being funded by the Canadian Government through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) at an amount of $29.6 million.
Its objective is to provide increased access to sustainable water and sanitation services for approximately 125,000 beneficiaries in 30 selected small towns in 13 districts in the region.
The Northern Regional Director of the EPA, Mr Iddrisu Abu told the Daily Graphic that the participants had been be trained to draft Environmental Management Plans that would address issues such as wastewater and solid waste management, land conservation and the protection of forestry.
“We also sensitised them to the negative environmental practices that could prevent them from reaping adequate benefits from the water and sanitation projects,” he stated.
Mr Abu noted that practices like tree cutting and bush burning could impact negatively on the continuous existence and quality of water sources.
He also explained that when waste materials were not managed properly, they could end up polluting water sources and this would make the water provided to the community folk unsafe.
In his address, during the opening ceremony, the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Mr San Nasamu Asabigi noted that water was life and therefore all must embrace efforts being made to promote the provision of potable water to deprived communities.
He said the selected beneficiary towns were faced with acute inaccessibility to potable water and, therefore, the intervention of NORST was “timely and highly relevant to the needs and aspirants of communities in the beneficiary districts.”
Mr Asabigi stressed that the provision of potable water would eventually eradicate the incidence of guinea worm and other water-borne diseases.
“It will as well promote agriculture and facilitate a livelihood community value-chain associated with progressive agricultural, health and socio-economic development,” he mentioned.
The deputy minister commended the Canadian government for its unrelenting support to the country and pledged the commitment of the Ghana government to ensure the success of all the development interventions.