Guinness expands water for life project

THE management of Guinness Ghana Breweies Limited (GGBL), brewers of assorted alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in the country said the company is stepping up its water supply to rural communities under the Guinness 'Water of Life' project to benefit about 100,000 people nationwide before the end of 2011.
The Guinness Ghana 'Water of Life' intiative, the local project of the Guinness Africa flagship community investment programme has since 2007 provided over 500,000 people with access to portable drinking water. 
Speaking to the Daily Graphic after a six kilometer walk to commerate World Water Day which comes on Tuesday, the Managing Director of GGBL Mr Ekumife Okoli said Guinness together with its 'Water of Life' partners was currently implementing 15 water projects across the entire country.
He, however, noted that despite the company's continuous stretch in making portable water accessible to peolpe in the country, Guinness was still aware of the fact that such an effort was only a scratch on the surface of the country's mounting water problems.
"15 projects would be implemented this financial year to provide  100,000 additional  people with clean drinking water. But this is just like scratching the surface of the current water problems in Ghana and we at Guinness together with our water partners are putting on more energy and plans to cover even more communities," Mr Okoli said.
Guinness Ghana last year April hosted major water consumers and stakeholders on a roundtable discussion aimed at facilitating corporate institution's engagement in tackling the country's water problems.
The MD thus called on other corperate bodies and benevolent institutions "to do something about this water problem for our people."
Ghana is currently battling with acute water deficiency, a situation the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) which oversees the production and distribution of portable water has always blamed on lack of funds for expansion works and repair of aging equipment.
Mr Okoli  said the company was at the moment giving out 3,500 water purification filters, the CrystalPur water filter to clinics and schools in some selected regions across the country.
"We'er also selling this filter at a subsidised price to young people who earn below $100 and by the end of August 2011, an estimated 105, 000 people would have be given access to clean drinking water. We do this to help curb the rise in water related diseases in Ghana," Mr Okoli said.
Guinness Africa has, as part of its corporate responsibility programmes to the communities in which it operates a yearly one million water supply target until 2015 and Mr Okoli said Guinness Ghana is set on meeting such  a goal here in Ghana.
On why the company opted for water over other social amenities, the MD said "the issue of water is very pervasive all over the world and  its importance to life in particular."
Added to that, Mr Okoli said the company's huge water usage only "makes it responsible on us at Guinness to give back to our communities what we take from them; we try to replenish the resources that we take from the community for our productions."
He however added that the company was currently encouraging sorghum production in parts of the Nothern region saying that about "2,000 families were employed under the intiative and have since produced well over 3,000 metric tonnes of the cereal."