4Ward Development West Africa, a private water utility service provide, has provided more than 100,000 people with access to safe water services that ensures sustainability through a carbon neutral water distribution system in 10 communities in two regions of the North.
The model thrives on an economics of scale, through a modular, purpose approach and offers convenience and builds costumer aspiration with over 175 people, mostly women who work as vendors, technicians and marketers, which provide a range of water services that focus on job creation as a core corporate mission.
The Upper West and Savannah Regional Director of 4Ward Development West Africa (4WardWA), Mr. Ahmed Yekini, made this known last Friday, at Nyoli in the Wa West District, when the Commission Numa Water System, under the Enhancing Wash Project with the Theme: Sustainable Water In Yipien-Bor (Nyoli), the first of its kind in the district, and that the initiative was to complement the government’s efforts in providing potable water to the people towards achieving the Sustainable Develoment Goal Six.
Mr. Yekini said the intervention, which was estimated to cost US$700,000, would benefit about 25,000 people in 10 communities, and plans were advanced to invest another US$1,500,000 in the water infrastructure next year, which has been estimated to reach over 45,000 people.
According to him, ten communities have benefited in the Upper West and Savannah region in the supply of safe and sustainable water this year, and the communities are Blema, Tuna, Gindabour and Kulmasa, in Sawla-Tuna Kalba District, Ponyetanga, Ga, Kundue and Nyoli, in Wa West, Loggu community in Wa East District and Boli community in the Wa Municipal.
The Regional Director of 4Ward Development said the community water build infrastructure is designed to provide safe water delivery options tailored to consumer demand that includes walk-up public fetch station operated by vendors, and private connections for households, schools, businesses and clinics.
He indicated that the water was tapped from underground, treated and distributed to the people in 40 households in the Nyoli community, connecting it to their homes.
The Chief Executive Officer of Water4 and 4WardWA, Mr. Matt Hangen, said the water intervention would not only alleviate the plight of the people, particularly women and children in accessing water, but rather provide over 170 job opportunities for the community.
“Our lives should not begin on our mothers backs as they haul 30 kilometres for dry water only to, at the end of our lives, find ourselves made sick and frail from hauling and drinking that same water,” he stated.
The Wa West District Chief Executive, Madam Vida Diorotey, said the intervention would save the district its meager resources to provide potable water for the smaller communities in the area.
