The Chief Executive officer of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Mr. Worlanyo K. Siabi has expressed the Agency’s readiness to form a long-term relationship with the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD), in the areas of ground water accessibility, production and sustainability.
He said this when he and the Director in charge of Planning and Investment of CWSA, Mr. Ibrahim Adokor, paid a visit to Management of the University. They were received by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Eric Nyarko-Sampson, the Registrar and some members of Management
The visit was a reciprocal one by members of faculty to the Agency months ago in one of UESD’s collaborative visits to industry. Mr. Siabi expressed enthusiasm about a partnership between the two institutions and particularly about the signing of an MOU between the two institutions in the not too distant future.
He said, there is a misleading notion that water accessibility, production and maintenance is an easy field that can be learnt in a spate of five days. He stated that water is science and very complicated and requires technical hands. As such, the procedure to treat water in large and small quantity is the same.
Mr. Siabi was optimistic that experts produced by the UESD in water resource production and management and other affiliated fields of study will help the agency deal with the recurrent technical problems it is saddled with.
In order to curb this problem, he said there is the need to bring on board graduate technicians who have the requisite expertise for effective production and maintenance of the ground water resources in relation to accessibility, production and management.
He encouraged Management of the University to keep to its core values of HOPE in order to produce graduates who are honest, selfless and patriotic to give Ghana, ‘hope’.
For his part, the Director in charge of Planning and Investment of CWSA, Mr. Ibrahim Adokor said, sustaining resources and projects have the tendency to ensure that beyond the supply of water to the community, the resources invested by government and other partners do not go waste.
He indicated that the CWSA consciously recruits technically inclined persons to manage and enhance sustainability of the agency’s scarce resources in order to reduce cost and improve production. He was happy to announce that the students of the University fit in.
The Registrar, Mrs. Mary Abena Agyepong, re-iterated the University’s core values of HOPE. She said, the UESD wants to produce students who are Honest, take Opportunities, Persevere and are Enterprising.
As such, the UESD is taking the pains to inculcate in each member of the University community these values. This is why it dedicated two weeks to put together the HOPE Roadshow which served as a conduit to train members of the University community.
He said, there is the need to appreciate this new era and new attitudes to ensure that they are effectively socialized to understand the need to maintain strong standards.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Nyarko-Sampson, expressed appreciation to the team for the visit and looked forward to a partnership in terms of internship and staff exchange programmes.
He was confident this would help prepare students to be better equipped to combat the challenges that exist in ‘our communities regarding water supply and management.’
He said, the University’s laboratories and other facilities are also well equipped to assist the CWSA in the areas of data analysis and interpretations regarding researches into water quality and capability gaps.
Present at the meeting were some Lecturers from the School of Sustainable Development; Dr. Michael Tuffour (Head of Department of Water Resources and Sustainable Development), Dr. Gibrilla Abass, and Dr. George Lutterodt.