Nestlé Ghana Limited and the Ghana Red Cross Society have commissioned a mechanized borehole system in Kadewaso in the Atiwa District, Eastern Region to mark this year's World Water Day celebration.
The borehole system is one of twelve water supply systems, constructed to improve access to safe water in cocoa-growing communities in the Eastern and Ashanti Regions, under the Ghana Sustainable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Project (Ghana-WASH).
The Ghana-WASH Project aims to enhance community resilience by providing clean water to farming communities under the Nestlé Cocoa Plan in Ghana. So far, the project has offered 115,761 people access to safe water. Ghana-WASH also inspires behavioural change in these communities through the promotion of practices like handwashing. A total of 186,255 people have been impacted by health and hygiene education.
To ensure sustainability, the water system in Kadewaso is powered by a hybrid system that uses solar power as its main power source and the national grid as a backup. It pumps groundwater into a 50,000 litre overhead steel tank that supplies clean water through pipes closer to residents. Vending points are strategically located in the communities to reduce time spent by residents on fetching water.
These water points dispense water automatically through the use of tokens loaded with “e-credits”, which allows for responsible and convenient use day and night. The water supply system in Kadewaso, which is one of several put up by the Ghana Red Cross with the support of Nestlé, gets its water from below the ground, coherent with the World Water Day theme this year: Groundwater - making the invisible, visible.
The Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Deborah Kwablah said the Ghana Wash project started in 2014 in partnership with Ghana Red Cross Society and her organisation in which they provided 107 water points and over 320 sanitation facilities in schools, communities, health facilities under the wash face one.
She added the wash face two projects is to provide mechanised solar systems to communities that provide Cocoa in the Eastern and Ashanti Regions which is in line with sustainability efforts so that the community will be healthy.
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