ENVIRONMENT

Parliament approves $125m for GAMA project
Parliament has approved one hundred and twenty-five million financing agreement between the government of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA), as additional funding for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Sanitation and Water project (GAMA-GSWP).

Date Created : 10/30/2020 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanadistricts.com

Major interventions under the project include household toilets and school sanitation facilities, to improve the expansion of water distribution networks and improve the expansion of wastewater and fecal sludge collection, transportation, and treatment.

The project is consistent with the coordinated programme of Economic and Social Development policies (CPESDP) 2017-2024 of the government of Ghana and the proposed interventions are fully aligned with the objective of improving access to water and sanitation services for all.

It is being done through improved water production and distribution, scaling up investment in the sanitation sector, establishing a national sanitation fund, and implementing the “Toilet for All” and “Water for All” programmes under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) among other interventions, all in line with the sustainable development goal 6.

Members of Parliament (MPs) gave their approval to the loan which has thirty years tenor, including five years grace payment period and a repayment period of twenty-five years with service charges of 1.3 percent, interest charge, and a maximum commitment charge of 0.50 percent annum on the non-withdrawn financing balance.

According to the Finance Committee in their report, so far the key achievement of the original project as of July 2020, includes affordable household toilets, thus provision of over twenty-seven thousand household toilets exceeding the target of nineteen thousand one hundred which has benefited about two hundred and eighteen thousand people.