Ghana, Togo to harvest water from Volta Lake

Ghana and Togo have renewed their commit-ment to implement a project to harvest water from the Volta River and export it from Sogakope to Lome.Known as the Sogakope–Lome Trans-boundary Water Supply Project, the initiative has been on the drawing board since 1970 but lack of funds and technical challenges stalled its implementation.The two countries are now exploring a public private partnership to reactivate the project which will also ensure the supply of potable water to communities in the southeastern part of Ghana, including Ehie, Denu, Agbozume, Tokor Betsima, Gamadzra Anyako, Kilkor, Avoene, Sogakope and Akatsi.The project will include the construction of a raw water intake facility at Sogakope to draw water from the Volta River for potable water production.A water treatment plant and an 82 kilometre water transmission pipeline will also be constructed between Sogakope in Ghana and Segbe in Togo as part of the project.The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Togo last Friday.Signing for Ghana, the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda, said the agreement paves the way for a feasibility study to be undertaken to ascertain the actual scope and cost of the project prior to its implementation.Alhaji Dauda said the feasibility study was expected to upgrade a former study conducted in 2005 on the project.He explained that an upgrade had become necessary because the population and other indicators used in the former study - 10 years ago - had changed and, therefore, it had to be upgraded to determine the actual scope and cost of the project currently.The feasibility study has been scheduled for 14 months, beginning in January 2015 under the auspices of the African Development Bank (AFDB).Alhaji Dauda said a consultant had already been appointed to facilitate the commencement of the feasibility studies.According to him, both governments considering the benefits of the project have decided to implement it now under the local public-private partnership (PPP) agreement.The PPP agreement will ensure that through a water purchase agreement, the two countries would not make any direct investment into the project.He explained that a private investor would be given the opportunity to carry out the project and sell the potable water produced to the government of Ghana to be supplied to Lome and other targeted communities in Ghana.The Minister of Rural Equipment, Togo, Mr Nabagou Bissoune, commended the presidents of both countries for their interest and commitment to ensuring that the project was implemented to enhance water supply in both countries.According to him, the provision of potable water, particularly in Lome, has been very challenging due to the absence of enough natural water bodies.Mr Bissoune said as a result ground water had been overexploited, particularly through the construction of more boreholes.He acknowledged that the completion of the project would ensure the provision of safe, reliable and affordable water to the people of Lome.