Development projects -> Water Project

WATER PROJECT IN KOTINGLY

Background

In the village of Kotingli south of Tamale, CID-Ghana is carrying through two separate projects. Village representatives originally approached CID-Ghana in search of support for the nursery school but when CID entered the village it was obvious that the water supply was an acute problem. The water used came from a pool nearby without a filtering system and the drinking water was brown from dirt and a serious cause of diseases. During the dry and hot season the pool dries up totally and the locals have to walk as far as 22km to fetch water.
In the areas around Tamale the ground water is so deep that the bore whole system used in many other parts of Ghana can't be used. Instead collection of rain water is the most efficient system.




CID-Ghana did the background research and decided to help the village by digging a deeper pool, plaster and fence it and create a sand filtration system. The CID-Ghana foundation in Holland took on the search for funds and found support in private donors as well as the Dutch NGO Simavi. Simavi agreed to double the amont of money gathered by CID to invest in the project. Private donors provided CID with the amount needed to be doubled by Simavi. The project started in the beginning of April 2007. It's a very big, expensive and ambitious project, but really necessary for the healthy development of the village.

Progress

The project was separated into two phases. The first phase of the dam included deepening the dam and plastering it as well as building a fence around it. This phase was completed in the beginning of 2007 although not fully satisfactory and adjustments had to be done the following year.
The second phase involves deepening the dam and fitting in a dam filtration system.

To finish the second phase successfully, new specialists and technical persons needed to be engaged to make sure the experiences from the first phase were avoided. At this point we are happy to say the first part of the phase two of the dam project has successfully completed.
In April 2008, an agreement was signed between CID-Ghana and AS-KPEGU engineering and Construction Company limited for the hiring of a D6 capacity bulldozer to start excavation of the dam site. A consultant and irrigation dam expert at the University for Development Studies was contracted to see to the supervision of work. After the two days of work (16 hours) the results were clear with an estimated 3,150 cubic meters of space added to the dam capacity. This has raised the total dam capacity to an estimated 31,500 cubic meters of volume for water.

At the moment the level of the water has increased quickly after two rains and there is already much joyful views for the entire village of Kootingly and its surroundings. It would be an enormous relief for the people of Kotingli, if the rain water gathered at the end of the season reach the next season and provide them with water through the dry season.
From the point of view of Mr. Vincent D. Gbedzi, the consultant and irrigation dam expert, there is a possibility of the dam drying up if and only the weather becomes very harsh with unexpected high temperatures during the year. This he associated to lack of trees around the dam and the fact that the dam is not deep enough as it would require. He emphasized that if even the tree planting is done, it would take sometime, may be a year or two for the effects of the trees affect the dam.

Progress reports can be found under reports on the CID-Ghana homepage.