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It has emerged that the Kufour administration which has been given credit for the Wa Water Project dismissed it as only possible after 20 years.
This was revealed by the Member of Parliament for Wa Central, Abdul Rashid Pelpuo, who witnessed the shock of his life when he raised the deplorable water situation of Wa in parliament during the President Kufour-led administration.
According to him, he was told by the then Water Resources Works and Housing Minister, Hackman Owusu Agyemang that Wa can only get the water project he was requesting after 20 years.
His revelation comes after President Akufo-Addo credited the erstwhile Kufour government where he served as a cabinet Minister, with securing funding for the project.
The President said this when he commissioned the 5.5 million dollars Water project Tuesday.
“Great Ghanaian leader John Agyekum Kufour, it was in his time that the financing for this project was secured as far back as 2008; unfortunately after he left it took five years under the governance of NDC successive government before the construction of the project,” he claimed.
Wa Central MP, Dr. Abdul Rashid Pelpuo, is however surprised at President Akufo-Addo’s account of the genesis of the Wa Water Project.
“I made a statement in parliament whiles in opposition to the effect that Wa was suffering…there was cholera and we needed Water and that the lack of Water was impeding progress and creating health hazards for the people and there was the need for Wa to have consistent supply of portable Water to households,” he recounted.
The Wa Central MP said the government responded by telling him his request could not be granted.
“There was a response by Water Resources Minister at the time, Mr. Hackman Owusu Agyemang, who came to say that the Wa water problem was a very serious problem and that for water to get to Wa in the way and manner I wanted, it would take 20 years to get water,” he revealed.
Dr. Rashid Pelpuo said he never forgot Hackman’s response to the extent that he made it his 2008 re-election campaign message.
“My campaign in 2008 was to say that let’s vote for the NDC; NDC was going to give you water,” he asserted.
Dr. Abdul Rashid Pelpuo praised the late President John Mills for his intervention in the issue when he brought the Wa Water situation to his attention.
He said he approached late President Mills based on a hint that the Korean government was interested in investing in the project.
“Based on information I received that the Koreans were willing to invest in the Wa Water project and that the investment was likely going to Brong Ahafo and that Wa was a critical place and if I intervene there is high possibility that the President and everybody will support me. So I went to him privately and talked to him,” he stated.
The Wa Central MP said the late President Mills tasked former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, to work with him to secure the funding for the Wa Water Project.
He was surprised President Akufo-Addo is now crediting the Kufour administration for the project.
“From my end I knew that NPP has given up on Wa; they said we could not get water until after 20 years,” he insisted.
By: Sena Nombo/Radiogold905.com
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