By Idrissa Bangura

In a bid to provide and strengthen water delivery supply capacity, the Low –Income Customer Support Department of the Ghana Water Company Limited and Vei sent a team of six members to the Guma Valley Water Company under the European Water Operators. The visit was aimed at strengthening the capacity performance of utilities with the goal of contributing to achieve United Nations SDG Six.

According to the Chief Manager of Ghana Water Low–Income Customer Support Department, Faustina Boachie said the main objective of the visit is to facilitate the visit key objectives of transformation of the Community Services Unit of the Guma Valley Water Company into a department, ‘’their visit is to facilitate the preparation of an establishment plan and see how Guma can adapt it. The more visible low –income customers are within a utility, the better the quality of the service they will receive’’, she narrated.

She said the visit is to ensure that the deliverable goals are on track and objectives are achieved and also said a lot has been achieved under the EU- WOP. She revealed that she hope to see the training given to both Guma Water and Guma Valley impact the work of the community services unit as they have been given a lot of training over the last twelve months.

The Managing Director of Guma Valley Water Company, Ing.  Maada S. Kpenge said improving water supply services to the urban poor is the obligation of Guma’s operation; The reason why low – communities are not served is that we think they lack the capacity to pay for the service, we must therefore find innovative means to cater for their water needs’’.

He furthered that the company has done a lot to transform the Community Services Unit by linking its functions with the peri-urban services, and that it will gradually be transformed into a department with the potential to attract external funding. The course of the five-day visit is to enable the team to finalize the Financial plans for years one and two of the partnership, agreed on a model for recording financial transactions, review document and existing corporate structure of Ghana and share best practices on the establishment of Community Services Department.

The engagement with representatives of the European Delegation in Sierra Leone and UNICEF and the discussion on such engagement were held to continue strengthening the capacity of the Guma Community Services Unit. The team further made moves to Kroo Bay and Juba to see which community service delivery models would suit them.