Cecilia Dapaah: GWCL begins house-to-house water audit

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah has proposed that a house-to-house water audit must be carried out to check illegal water connection in Ghana.

The increasing rate of illegal water connection for domestic purposes is seriously impacting on the revenue of the Ghana Water Company Limited  (GWCL).

Addressing journalists on Monday (11 April), Dapaah said the audit will ensure value for money and address the illegal connection menace.

“We also have the challenge of illegal connection, and this is a very serious issue,” the minister said. “Just yesterday a resident of East Legon was caught red handed. He had connected two big pipes into our main line and had denied the whole catchment area of water, when he was apprehended and the pipes were disconnected, immediately, water started flowing in homes.”

She added: “But the most serious aspect of this crime is that people who he had denied water were buying water from him, illegally selling water without permit, and so I think the MD of Ghana Water Dr Clifford Braimah is handling that issue and he will be handed over to the police and I hope he will pay up for the number of years or months he had wrongly done that.”

“And also I have proposed that we start very soon a house-to-house audit of the water we use in our homes, so that those of us who have been denied water by others can have water flowing,” Dapaah said.

We cannot reduce water tariff

The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has said it is not in the position to reduce water tariff for consumers due to the impact of pollution of water bodies on its operation.

The MD of GWCL Dr Clifford Braimah said the amount of aluminium sulphate used in treating polluted water by his outfit at Weija alone has increased from 200 to 300 bags in the past two years alone.

Speaking to Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday, Braimah laments that until Ghanaians take responsibility to halt polluting water bodies, the cost of production will keep rising to the disadvantage of consumers.

“We could also have a reduction in tariffs, it’s about the volumes and the expenditure. If we are able to recover a lot more at the same cost, it is expected that the tariff will come down,” he said.

“And so how do you achieve this when somebody is in the river itself polluting it, if you take 100 litres of water and you send it to the treatment plant of Ghana Water, under normal circumstances, you should be able to send your customers 95 litres.

“Today, we are doing between 65 and 75 litres, and places like Odaso we do 50%. So, once we continue to pollute the water, the capacity of GWCL to get the water to the people will reduce. So, we are going to have shortages in the system,” Braimah added.

Fred Dzakpata

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