§ Mr. Spellerasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the commitment made in Accra in November 1980 by the then Minister of State to support the Overseas Development Agency spending programme on rehabilitation of the water supply in Kumasi, Ghana, remains the policy of Her Majesty's Government.
§ Mr. RaisonSupport for the rehabilitation of the Kumasi water supply has been under consideration for some time. The costs of making the necessary improvements are likely to be very much higher than original estimates; and at the same time the overall economic situation of Ghana has deteriorated sharply. In these changed circumstances, we do not believe it would be a sensible use of resources to proceed with this project at this stage. We believe priority should be given to those sectors which have the best prospects for generating income and foreign exchange earnings, in accordance with the Ghana Government's economic recovery programme as agreed with the IMF and the World Bank.