Agotime Kpetoe: Stakeholders meet over key water Project that has been diverted to Ziope

Stakeholders in the Agotime Kpetoe area have met to discuss lasting solutions to the perennial water problem in the district capital – Kpetoe. The meeting was under the auspices of the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Agotime-Ziope Constituency, Hon Charles Agbeve. It brought together the District Chief Executive (DCE), Chiefs and Queen Mothers of the area, Assembly Members, Leadership of Youth and Women Groups, Agotime Development Association (ADA), Opinion leaders, and the general public.

One key issue that came up for discussion was the purported diversion of a key project designed by government to help improve access to reliable and safe water supply in some Four constituencies in the Volta Region including Kpetoe and its surrounding communities.

In March 2020, Parliament approved a loan amount of 11.5 Million Euros from the Raiffeisenbank International AG of Austria and a Tax Waiver amounting to the Cedi equivalent of 3,123,300 on materials and project vehicles to be procured for the implementation of Phase III of the Four Constituencies Water Supply Scheme for Central Tongu, Adaklu Anyigbey, Agotime-ZIope Districts and Ho Municipality. The project was to be implemented by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA).

However, there were indications that the project could not be extended to reach Kpetoe which is the district capital but was rather diverted to Ziope, making the water challenge to continue to persist. The regional Director of the CWSA, Kofi Mensah Sebuabeh and his team of engineers who came to brief the meeting explained that the diversion was due to inadequate funding for the full scope of the project.

He explained that Phase III of the project required about 25 million Euros; however, the money approved for them fell short of 13.5 million Euros. Additionally, they realized that the geographical formation of the Kpetoe area demands that they construct a Tank and a booster to enable the water to be pumped over the hilly areas at Akuetteh – a suburb of Kpetoe. But because the approved funds was not enough hence it was decided that they rather lay pipes besides the Adaklu mountain into the Ziope community.

Accordingly, Kpetoe has been scheduled for inclusion in the Phase IV of the 4 Constituencies Water Supply Scheme. Even though Mr Mensah Sebuabeh indicated that he is unsure when the Phase IV would commence due to the fact that the Phase III is still in its early stages, he pegged the cost around 50 million Euros.

Participants at the meeting were visibly unhappy at the development especially about the fact that neither the community nor opinion leaders were consulted over the decision to divert the project from Kpetoe. The MP also lamented the fact that aside the lack of stakeholder engagements on the project, policy makers also tempered with the project by implementing something different from what was originally on the document that came to Parliament for approval.

“As the MP, I am not involved in any of the engagements and I think it is not the best. I don’t want to blame the implementers of the project which is the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA). It is how much is given them that they work with. But the problem is with the policy makers who sit in Accra and take decisions for us without consulting us,” he stated.

He described the meeting as very fruitful, adding that “I think we must organize this very often. I will make sure that I organize this kind of stakeholder meetings for all sectors like Health, Education, and community development, among others. It enables the people to voice out their concerns,” the MP stated.