THE GHANA Water Company Limited (GWCL) has indicated that illegal mining in the country’s major rivers is dealing a hefty blow to its operations, and that if the turbidity of these rivers crosses a certain thresh hold, it may have no option than to shut down.
Managing Director of GWCL, Clifford Braimah, who announced this during a dialogue with chiefs and opinion leaders in the Atiwa West District of the Eastern Region on the state of the Birim River, was part of a forum organised by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources.
Mr. Braimah said since the fight against galamsey was a national issue and the Ghana Water Company Limited had been hit hardest, the government was leaving no stone unturned in the fight against the menace together with the regulatory agencies as well as the security agencies.
He noted that, “It is imperative for the GWCL to also meet key stakeholders in the respective water treatment plant areas which have been affected by the polluted water bodies to solicit their collaboration towards fighting the menace. I am not a happy person, but I pray that the security, the regulators and the President’s admonishing to the MMDCEs, will help reduce the problems. At the end of it, if nothing changes, it will mean that our system might not be able to operate because our pumps are not designed to pump silts.”
He said GWCL system is rather designed to pump fresh water, so when the water turns silty, “we have to shut down and shutdown means people will not even get water; and now that the water is so dirty they cannot even go to the river to fetch to do anything, so it becomes a national security issue. That is why people must take this issue more seriously.”
He continued that, “This galamsey is a national issue and the President has already spoken to the DCEs, the MMDCEs; he has spoken with the chiefs and is expecting that people will abide by the directives but for the impact on the GWCL no one should even tell us, it is so huge and fortunately, we have a regulator. If your cost is high, you cannot, like any business, transfer your cost onto the consumer.”
“Of every 100 litres of water that we take, we expect that 95 litres will go to the customers, but in some of these cases, we do 50% process losses, so instead of having 95 to send to the customers, we have only 50 to send. So the 45 litres that others would have consumed, they are not going to have it and we continue to do what we call ‘demand management’ such that we push it today to one side, and tomorrow we push it to the other side.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, also the MP for Sisala East, Hamidu Chinnia Issahaku, bemoaned the cost of treating water, which has gone up by six times as a result of the destruction caused by illegal mining to Ghana’s water bodies, making it difficult for the GWCL to extend water to many communities.
BY Daniel Bampoe