The Member of Parliament for Wa Central, Rashid Pelpuo, has expressed surprise at claims by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the recently inaugurated Wa Water Project was conceived and started under the Kufuor administration.
According to him, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had been at the forefront of the project since its inception, and deserved to be commended following the completion and recent commissioning.
[contextly_sidebar id=”9WqJvIfQuudSwim4stOT4w14jLI5A9bU”]”This is the first time I’m hearing that the NPP had a hand in the water NDC has provided for the people of Wa Central. It’s the NDC administration that initiated it and it’s the NDC administration that worked it out and ensured we have water supply in Wa for which we are extremely grateful,” Rashid Pelpuo said on Eyewitness News on Thursday.
The President, Nana Akufo-Addo, who commissioned the project on Monday, suggested that it was started during Kufuor’s tenure and stalled for five years after the NDC came into office before it was revived in 2013.
“It was in his (President Kufuor’s) time that the financing for this project was secured, as far back as 2008. But, unfortunately, after he left [office in 2008], it took five years under the NDC successor governments before the construction of the project began,” he had said.
“God has his own way of doing things. A project that was started by Kufuor is going to be commissioned by Akufo-Addo. That is the way the Almighty works”
Nana Addo’s comments provoked the ire of NDC communicators who accused the current government of trying to belittle the feats of the Mahama administration.
We started Wa Water project; Nana Addo ‘lied’ – NDC
The NDC in the Upper West Region said the President had lied, and that “the $51.54 million 3.3 million gallons per Day Wa water project was occasioned by the NDC administration. The sod cutting was done by HE John Dramani Mahama in February 2013 for works to start, five clear years after the NPP lost power to the Late President Mills in 2008.”
Rashid Pelpuo said he had urged then President, John Atta Mills, to take up the water issue in Wa Central after the NDC won the elections in 2008.
Pelpuo narrated that the Koreans had expressed a desire to take up the project, and after a delay due to”background checks and value for money analysis, when the government was satisfied that we were getting the money from a credible source, we signed a contract with them. Parliament itself approved it before we sent it to Parliament” he said.
What are the facts?
In March of 2009, then Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor serving in the NDC administration which had taken over office from the NPP, presented to parliament a number of water projects that were to take place. Among them was the Wa Water project.
Also, records from Parliament confirm that, the loan agreement between Ghana and the Korean Exim Bank was adopted by Parliament in October 2012, during the John Mahama administration.
The project therefore could not have started under former President John Agyekum Kufuor, but rather commenced under the NDC’s John Dramani Mahama.
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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana