Challenges Of Safe Accesible Water Outlined

Thursday October 29, 2009
By Michael N. Oti

The availability and access to safe and sufficient source of fresh drinking water is a major development challenge facing the developing world.

Mr. Ebenezer Adjei Osekre, a civil engineer made this statement during the launch of the water day project organised by Talent Foundation under the theme “Safe Water by all means; using science and technology” at the British Council Hall in Accra yesterday.

He said the national budget for the provision of water to the population is veered towards the urban centres to the detriment of those in the rural areas.

“Its implications are that water borne diseases will be prevalent in the rural areas with its high cost to labour” he said.

“Meanwhile government, private sector and development partners must begin to concentrate on appro-priate technologies and basic water engineering systems that can address the needs of rural population” he added.

In respect to this, he suggested the construc-tion of weirs (simple concrete structures) e.g. v-notch, rain water harvesting and riverbank filtration as other methods that can be used in addition to the appropriate systems suitable for rural setting such as boreholes and hand dug wells.

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