New Atuabo in the Tarkwa Municipality has won this year's Water and Sanitation, WATSAN, cleanest community award organized by Goldfields Ghana Limited, Tarkwa mine for its host communities.
For their prize, they received 25 cutlasses, 10 wheelbarrows, 10 shovels, seven rakes, five brooms and three litter bins.
Brahabebome community placed second and took home, 20 cutlasses, eight shovels, six rakes, six wheelbarrows, five brooms and two dustbins.
The third position had 18 cutlasses, seven shovels, six wheelbarrows, five rakes, three brooms and two dustbins went to Huniso community.
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Samahu, Pepesa, Abekoase, Akoon and Tebe communities won the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth positions.
All the five communities received wheelbarrows, rakes, booms, dustbins and shovels.
The award programme was instituted by the mining company in 2012 to promote clean communities and healthy environment.
In a speech read on behalf of the Environmental Manager of Goldfield, Tarkwa mine, Mr Chris Debrah, said between 2002 and 2017, Goldfields Ghana spent 3,383,147.31 United States dollars on water and sanitation projects and other activities.
This, he said, included the provision of small town water supply systems in all their communities, reconstitution of water and sanitation committees and provision of toilet facilities.
He said refuse containers have also been presented to the Tarkwa Nsueam and Prestea Huni/Valley assemblies.
In 2015, Mr Debrah said all the WATSAN committees were reconstituted to empower them carry out their mandate and SUDEF, a private water and waste management consultant, was contracted to train the committees, traditional authorities and assembly members.
He said the award programme had instilled in the WATSAN committees, unit committees and the entire population of the communities a sense of fair and healthy competition with the view of a clean environment.
Mr Debrah said it is no coincidence that the Tarkwa Nsueam municipality has not recorded any case of cholera outbreak for years.