King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II officially opens first WaterHealth centre in Ashanti region, Ghana
Two water health centers have been commissioned at Effiduase and Kantinkyiren in the Ashanti region in Ghana.
The centres are operated by WaterHealth Ghana and can purify 3,000 liter water per hour, providing potable water to both villages.
The water is treated with a specific modified version of the Waterguard reversed osmosis systems, supplied by Dutch Water Partners (DWP).
The grand opening ceremony took place in the presence of King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II of Ashanti (on top photo).
'Dr Water' WaterHealth facility in Kantinkyiren just before the official opening.
Public-private partnership
The two centres are part of a bigger plan to set up 85 of these locations and serve 20 million people with drinking water.
The overall project is a public-private partnership between WaterHealth Ghana and the Dutch government, and is based on a build-operate-transfer (bot) model, wherein the local community provides land, water and electricity to centres.
WaterHealth Ghana operates and maintains the plant as a company for the concession term. After this term the centres will be handed over to the local community.
WaterHealth is committed to purify 3000 liters of water per hour
Lower water prices
The water problem in Ghana is that many people have access to only contaminated water. "In fact 25 percent of the children today are sick because of the contaminated water that they drink,” revealed Vikas Shah, chief operating officer of WaterHealth Ghana.
The new commissioned plant Kantinkyiren now provides purified and safe drinking water at lower prices than their current alternatives. The name of the facility is Dr Water, referring to protection against these water borne diseases.
Five Waterguard units at DWP in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, awaiting shipment to Ghana
Modified RO-system
Dutch Water Partners was able to supply WaterHealth Ghana with 20 Waterguard ROM 4 systems in 4 weeks and by meeting all the requirements for the celebration event with the King of Ashanti.
The newly launched reverse osmosis units have a capacity of 1000 and 1600 liters per hours.
Triggered by WaterHealth’s project for 85 water stations in Ghana, Dutch Water Partners constructed a modified version of its exisisting series, with a low power consumption of 1.5 kW and the same 70 percent recovery rate.
User friendly RO-system
According to Peter Bulsing, director of DWP, their Waterguard system has a big advantage over comparable RO-systems, that often fail due to their complexity. "The people in the communities are not familiar with the technology", he explained. "Our systems are straightforward to maintain and user friendly. They are inexpensive for the local communities and easy to install, expand or even move to a different location".
Read also on this website
● Dutch Water Partners present new WaterGuard unit for water centres in Ghana, 21 December 2015
More information
Dutch Water Partners
Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
+31 58 28 00 730
www.dutchwaterpartners.nl