General News of Monday, 1 October 2018
Source: thefinderonline.com
2018-10-01
Maji Sunil Lalvani and the MCE in a photo with elders of Denteng, Akwaboa and Hwiede
As part of it vision to provide drinking water for rural Africans by 2025 in Sub—Saharan Africa, the Chief Executive Officer of Project Maji Sunil Lalvani, has told The Finder that the project is on course to provide drinking water to about 50,000 Ghanaians living in rural areas before the year ends.
The project since its inception four years ago has provided water for about 30-40 communities with another 10-12 communities to be served before the year ends.
Speaking to The Finder, after the commissioning of the three projects, the CEO of Project Maji Sunil Lalvani told the paper that, the vision of the project is to sustainably provide potable water to more than one million rural Africans by 2025.
“We have been running Project Maji for four years now in Ghana. We are trying to make sure we cover the whole country eventually. It is important to make sure the projects can be maintained. We have a team that is working locally so they can access the sites, that is why we chose these districts because we know we can look after it and we have tremendous support from the district and chiefs.
“Our primary aim is to provide water for these communities and that’s all. By the end of this year about 50,000 people will be served with drinking water through our project. We work with some good partners such as Polytank, World Vision and with all the support we can hit our target by a million people by 2025.
“We have provided water to about 35—40 communities in Ghana. We have another 10-12 communities more to serve, he added.
Over the weekend, four solar panelled water projects were commissioned within the Kwahu West constituency.
The communities to benefit from these project were Nkawkaw Denteng, Akwaboa and Hwiede.
The commissioning of the project was attended by the representatives from the Ministry, the Municipal Chief Executive, chiefs and the people.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Project Maji Sunil Lalvani, in his address stated that the vision of Project Maji is to provide portable drinking water for the rural communities.
He stated that provision of water is a life-changing process for the people within these communities as they can go about to do their daily activities instead of searching for water which rubs them off their productive hours.
He added that the provision of these drinking water will help improve the standard of living in these localities as the saying goes water is life.
Ebenezer Charway a representative from the Ministry of Water Resources, who represented the sector Minister congratulated Project Maji for the provision of water to the communities.
According to him water provision is an important agenda for the government. He called on other corporate organizations and non-governmental organizations to also channel their efforts in the provision of water to some deprived communities in the country.
Special aid to the Municipal Chief Executive, Ben Owusu Addo, also thanked Project Maji for the provision of water for the deprived rural communities. He tasked the leaders in the community to form committees to manage the various sites to ensure the projects are put to good use.
The Krontihene of Denteng, Nana Kofi Yeboah, thanked Project Maji for the water provided for the community.
The Presiding Member for Kwahu West, Boansi Darkwa, stated that the local assembly is going to ensure that the projects are maintained and kept well for the use by the communities.
He also pleaded that the projects be extended to the other municipalities.