TAMALE RESIDENTS URGED TO USE WATER JUDICIOUSLY

The cost of producing water for public consumption is capital intensive and it would be very prudent for the general public who constitute majority of our customer base, make good use of water that is currently supplied to them; officials of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) in the Northern Region have said.

According to Assistant Communications Officer of GWCL, Nicholas Nii-Abbey and the Manager of the Dalun Water Treatment Plant Joseph Wilfred Odei, it cost the company GH¢250,000.00 every month to pay for electricity used for the production of water.

Additionally, it also cost GWCL an amount of GH¢50,000.00 to procure chemicals such as alum and others to treat the water in order to ensure that it is safe before distributing it to the public for consumption.

These were disclosed to a team of journalists and leadership of the Movement for Development, who were taken to the treatment plant at Dalun in the Tolon-Kumbungu District by officials of the water company, to learn at first hand, the challenges facing them with regards to water production.

The visit to the facility at Dalun was also informed by recent agitations by residents of the Tamale Metropolis, who constantly accused GWCL of deliberately rationing or denying them water. Thus, the Movement for Development which is a civil society organization in Tamale planned to stage a massive demonstration against the water company.

However, the group eventually called off the demonstration after its leadership took part in the visit to Dalun and became very convinced that the inability by GWCL to supply residents’ water was as a result of inadequate electricity supply to the plant.

Mr. Odei stated emphatically that the inability by GWCL to supply water to residents of the Tamale Metropolis was not deliberate as being speculated by some section of the public but due to constant power interruption/supply by the Volta River Authourity (VRA) to its production plant. “Because of the inadequate power supply at the moment, we are not able to produce at high capacity. Currently, we produce a little over 36,000 cubic metres of water per day and distribute it to the public, that is, when there is adequate flow of electricity. However, when there is uninterrupted power supply we can assure the public that we will be able to produce 45,000 cubic metres of water per day for their use”, he added.

Adding, Mr. Nii-Abbey noted, that places where water might not be able to reach may be as a result of technical problems on a transmission or distribution line. He urged the general public to endeavour to report to their offices for such problems to be addressed promptly.

According to the Communications Officer of GWCL, another major problem the company was facing was the sharing of VRA transmission lines with residents of the Dalun community. He recommended that in order to ensure adequate and constant supply of power to the water plant, VRA ought to consider giving GWCL a separate or dedicated line to boost their work.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Movement for Development, Mr. Ayuba Ahmed Muin, expressed satisfaction after he toured the facility at Dalun with the journalist and GWCL officials. “I thought the whole problem was coming from the water company, he said, adding that, now I know it’s as a result of insufficient power supply to them that is why they can’t give us (public) water.”