Stop bragging with Kyebi water – Okyenhene jabs Mahama

The President of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, who doubles as the Paramount Chief of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, has warned members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the government to desist from claiming that they have provided the residents of Kyebi with potable water.

According to the Okyenhene, it saddens him to hear the NDC activists campaigning on radio that it was President Mahama who provided water to Kyebi residents, stressing that “it's not true.”

Osagyefuo Amoatia made this observation when President Mahama, as part of his re-election campaign tour of the Eastern Region, paid a courtesy call on him at the Ofori Panin Fie at Kyebi, on Thursday.

He stated that government upgraded and expanded the mechanical system but did not construct the entire water supply system.

“We have been having water for a long time,” he indicated.

He expressed gratitude to the government for constructing the road from Apedwa to the Kyebi Township and also called on present and future governments to be genuinely concerned about the plight of Ghanaians and refrain from politicising everything.

The Kyebi Water Project was initiated by the previous Kufuor administration in June 2008 with funding from the Austrian government.

It was completed in 2011 under the NDC government, headed by President John Evans Atta Mills.

The delay in completing the project was as a result of the muddiness of the Birim River caused by illegal mining (galamsey) activities. It therefore became necessary for the project to be redesigned.

At the time of inaugurating the project, President Mahama said because River Birim had been heavily polluted, officials of the Ghana Water Company had to use excess chemicals to treat the Birim water before it became consumable, adding that his government funded the building of the water system.

President Mahama, who had described Kyebi as the headquarters of 'galamsey,' assured the residents that the mining sector would be given a boost in the next NDC government when given the nod, adding that part of the enhancement process of small-scale mining would be given a facelift to end the illegal mining menace in the country.

According to him, the fight against illegal mining had been a challenge and that to address it effectively, the government had started reviewing the mining regulations in the country.

He said as part of the exercise, the government had classified the mining sector into large, medium and small-scale which would successfully regulate the sector.

The president explained that all small-scale miners would be made to form cooperatives that would comprise at least 21 members to access regulated concessions to mine.

“By so doing the cooperatives will be urged to save some small amounts for a period of time to enable them access equipment that they could use to reclaim the land after mining,” he said.