US AMBASSADOR BIDS FAREWELL TO BA MINISTER (PAGE 40)

STORY: Akwasi Ampratwum-Mensah, Sunyani

United States (US) Ambassador to Ghana, Madam Pamela E. Bridgwater, has admitted that she also encountered the challenges of water shortages, electricity power outages and drought during her three-year duty tour of the country, just like the ordinary Ghanaian living in Accra or elsewhere in the country.
She, however, stated that the only advantage for her was that she had standby generators and other facilities that supported her when there were power cuts and other utility failures.
The ambassador who made the admission at Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region, was quick to add that every Ghanaian had the responsibility of contributing towards the solution of the problems that confronted the country.
Answering questions from journalists at the office of the Regional Minister, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, during a farewell call on him, Madam Bridgwater observed that the problem of the environment being choked with plastic materials, was not peculiar to Ghana, but also existed in many parts of the world.
She said the only solution to the problem of plastic waste was the recycling of rubber materials.
Madam Bridgewater gave the assurance that some cities in the US were ready to share their experiences with the various district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies in Ghana to solve the problem.
According to the ambassador, she had had a wonderful and enjoyable stay in Ghana, where she paid more than one working visit to the various regions and had learnt a lot about education, health, agriculture, water and sanitation, among other issues in the country.
Madam Bridgwater expressed her country’s commitment to strengthening the cordial relations that had existed between Ghana and America over the past decades.
She commended all the parties that had contributed in diverse ways in the fight against guinea worm infection in the country and expressed the hope that the incidence would be eradicated once and for all.
For his part, the regional minister noted with satisfaction that under the ambassador’s Special Self-Help Fund, most of the projects initiated in some deprived parts of the region in particular and the country as a whole, had been completed.
Mr Baffour-Awuah reiterated the government’s commitment to strengthening democracy and good governance in the country, adding that Ghana would continue to become the beacon of hope for Africa and many parts of the world.
The regional minister stated that the lack of technical educational institutes in the region, was a source of worry to the Regional Co-ordinating Council.
He, therefore, urged the US Embassy to explore ways to assist the region to establish some of those institutions in some parts of the region.
The Regional Directors of Health Services, Agriculture and Education, Alhaji Dr Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, Mr Asante Krobea and Mrs Akua Debrah, respectively, took turns to brief the ambassador and her entourage on the success stories and challenges of their sectors.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Sunyani, Mr Kwame Twumasi Awuah, appealed for a linkage between a city in the US and Sunyani to enable them share experiences.
Earlier on, the Co-ordinator for the Ambassador’s Special Self-Help Fund, Madam Peace Adwoa Nunoo, and the Press Attache at the embassy, Mr Benjamin A. East, had told the press that in the past three years, a total of $210,000 had been earmarked to assist deprived communities across the country to undertake their own initiated self-help projects in the areas of health, education, water and sanitation.