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Parliament has approved a €97.18-million credit facility agreement between the government and the Deutsche Bank to finance the expansion and rehabilitation of the Keta water supply system.

The facility, which is supported by the Italian Export Credit Agency, comprises a €84.42-million buyer credit and a €12.76-million commercial facility.

On its completion in three years, the project will supply potable water to over 422,160 people living in Agordome, Sogakope, Keta, Anloga and surrounding areas.

Other beneficiary communities are Kpodze, Kpotame, Vume, Tefle, Sokpoe, Dabala Junction, Tregui, Badadzi, Havedzi, Adzeto, Tegbi, Hovi-Aferdome, Kedzi and Nukpesekope.

Approval

The facilities were approved last Friday after the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, had read the committee’s report on the two agreements and recommendations for the House to adopt the report and approve the request, given the immense benefits to be derived from the projects.

The request for approval of the agreements was laid in the House by a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mrs Abena Osei-Asare, on behalf of the Minister of Finance, on February 14, last year and the Speaker subsequently referred the agreements to the Finance Committee for consideration.

Under the terms and conditions of the facilities, the buyer credit has a tenure of 13 years, a 10-year repayment period and three years’ grace period at an interest rate of six months Euribor benchmark two per cent plus per annum, while the other had a tenure of five years, four years repayment period, a grace period of one year and a six-month Euribor +4.9 per cent per annum.

Rehabilitation and expansion

Dr Assibey-Yeboah told the House that the Agordome-Sogakope water supply system, which was built in 1998 and took its raw water from the Volta Lake, supplied water to Sogakope, Keta and other surrounding towns and villages.

He said the water treatment facilities, with a normal capacity of 7,200 cubic metres (m3) per day, had been unable to provide adequate supply for those areas due to population and economic growth in the southern part of the Volta Region over the years.

In order to address the concerns, he said, the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation contracted Messrs Lesico Infrastructures S.R.L. to carry out an assessment of the Keta water supply systems.

“The assessment indicated the poor and deteriorating state of the water supply system and recommended major rehabilitation and expansion works to be carried out in a timely manner in order to ensure continuity of water supply to meet growing demand into 2030 and beyond,” he said.

The major components of the project include an intake facility with a capacity of 9.3 million gallons per day, a 7.7 million gallons conventional water treatment plant and the construction of a 62-kilometre transmission pipeline from Agordome to Keta, via Anloga.

Other works are the construction of a booster station and storage tanks, rehabilitation and extension of the distribution network with approximately 80km of pipes varying from 100 millimetres (mm) to 450mm, the supply of 8,000 domestic metres and spare parts, as well as the rehabilitation of the existing water treatment plant to a new capacity of 78,200m3 per day.