Ghana Water Company Ltd and Guma Valley Water Company of Sierra Leone deepens cooperation in water services
The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) in collaboration with Guma Valley Water Company (GVW C) of Sierra Leone and the Dutch VEI has rolled out programmes and initiatives as part of the drive to enhance operations and water services in both countries.
It is for these reasons that the three bodies have come up with a comprehensive framework and have also been selected under the European Union in line with the Water Operations Partnership (WOP) funded by the EU and will be managed by Global Water Operator’s Partnership Alliance (GWOPA).
The EU-WOP programme is an initiative funded by the European Union and managed by United Nations-Habitat’s Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA).
The alliance is funding over 20 Water Operators Projects (WOPs) which are solidarity-based, not-for-profit and peer-to-peer operations between water and sanitation and is geared towards the strengthening of capacity and performance of utilities with the ultimate goal of working towards the achievements the UN Sustainable Development Goals on clean water and sanitation for all.
The Project in April, 2021 received 142 applications and upon a careful two stage selection process the GWCL, GVWC and VEI were among the 22 projects selected in line with EU-WOP on allocation of $250,000 grant to fund the GWCL, GVWC and Dutch VEI aimed at supporting water services.
It is in these regard that the GWCL programme dubbed “Low Income Customer Support Department (LICSD) is working fervently in supporting Guma Valley Water Company’s vision and mission to better serve vulnerable populations for over 36 months period to support and develop GVWC pro-poor activities towards a better service delivery by contributing towards the SDGs 6 targets by embracing the “leave no one behind” principle.
The Managing Director GWCL, Ing Dr. Clifford Braimah in a remark, commended GVWC for demonstrating its commitments to enhance the operations of the water sector and said GWCL have done same by instituting a low-income customer support unit of the company in advocating for the unserved communities and households for the delivery of safe water.
The Chief Manager of LICSD, Mrs Faustina Boachie shared some insights of her encounter and experience with communities in the delivery of water, models of revenue collection and the establishment of Water User Associations saying the said activity brings to bear the comfort of the usage of water and however called on the two partners to share knowledge acquired to all stakeholders in the water value chain.
It would be recalled on 23rd of March, 2022, an agreement was signed at the World Water Forum in Dakar, Senegal with representatives from GWCL and GVWC and other stakeholders in the water sector aimed at forging partnerships in the bid to strengthen the working operations in the water sector.
Management of GWCL in July, 2022 paid a maiden working visit to Sierra Leone’s GVWC to familiarise themselves with water operations and activities with the call from the Board Chair of GVWC, Hon Bintu Myers to pledge the Board’s strategic support to deliver on the core mandate of the partnership and its objectives.
