The Western Regional Manager of the Ghana Water Company, Mark Tei Codjoe says the shortfall in the supply of treated water to Sekondi-Takoradi and its environs is not yet at a crisis level.
According to him, the company is able to meet more than half of the daily demand of about 12 million gallons.
Mr. Codjoe told Citi News that the major problem has been the irregular power supply and reduction in raw water treatment due to the dry season.
The about 750,000 residents of Sekondi-Takoradi and its environs depend on Ghana Water Company’s Inchaban and Daboase water treatment plants for treated water.
With a daily demand of about 12 million gallons of treated water, the Ghana Water company says it is able to currently supply half daily
“The daily demands of Water supply to Sekondi-Takoradi stands between 45 thousand and 52 thousand cubic meters of water because of migrant population to the metropolis. This translate to between 10 to 12 millions of gallons per day. However we are supplying just half of that which is about 28 thousand cubic meters of water which translate into about six millions gallons of water daily.”
Although many have attributed the shortfall to the pollution of River Pra due to illegal mining activities, Mr. Codjoe said otherwise.
“We are confronted with two issues. One of them is challenges of power supply to our production facilities and the second one is availability of raw water which is a normal thing around this time of the year. The two treatment plants which supply water to the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis are the Daboase and Inchaban treatment plants. Daboase picks it source from the Pra River which there some level of pollution and the Inchaban plant also picks it water from the Anakore River which at this time of the year doesn’t give us enough of raw water.
“The power situation affects the two headworks which has also not help with the present situation, though not at crisis level. The supply of power is supposed to be on a daily basis but we all understand the challenges with the power situation now. These are the challenges we have with GRIDCo and PDS. I think they are working around the clock to solve some of these issues. They are aware of this and most at times they prompt us when they want to go off.”
The Western Regional PDS Public Relations officer, Ben Quarcoo. admitted to the challenge with power supply but said it has been resolved.
“We are aware of the situation and what happened is that after the rainstorm on the May 6, some of the trees there fell on our 33KV lines that serve the Daboase treatment plant but that has been rectified now so Ghana Water should be able treat and pump water now. Earlier, GRIDCo which is constructing a pylon to the proposed Karpowership relocation site in the Sekondi Naval Base also obstructed our supply to the treatment. So what happened is that the line also passed through Daboase so anytime that GRIDCO has to work on that 330 KV line, we would have to go off for GRIDCO in order not to create any kind of accident and that led to some irregular supply to the Daboase treatment plant.”
Though water is now generally running in most suburbs of Sekondi-Takoradi, Patience Daavi Ama Gykpasu who operates a popular food joint in Takoradi said the rationing is affecting her business.
“We use a lot of water to support our daily cooking activities. If there is no water, it becomes a hell of a problem for us. We have to be searching for water for three days since there are no fetching points at the Central Business District except for Fijai. It’s not easy for us here because if we don’t get water, how are we going to work to pay the staff here or keep your customers? We sometimes have to rely on KIA trucks but what about those who cannot afford a KIA truck so government must solve the problems of water supply here.”
The Ghana Water Company, for now, is doing its best to get water to most homes, but full restoration of regular water supply in Sekondi-Takoradi would be dependent on the consistent continuous power supply to Inchaban and Daboase water treatment plants.
