Ing. Dr. Clifford Braimah
The Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company. Ing. Dr. Clifford Braimah says nonwater revenue has declined significantly due to improvements in technology in recent times.
Non-water revenue is water that GWCL does not generate any revenue. It includes burst pipes, illegal connections, unpaid bills by customers, etc.
Speaking during his turn at the Ministry of Information’s ‘meet the press’ series in Accra, he said non revenue figure in 2017 which was estimated at 55 percent for total production reduced to 46 percent in 2021 as a result of improved technology such as metering systems.
“Non-revenue water figure in 2017 was estimated at 55% of total production that year. The non-revenue water figure for 2021 was 46%. The drive-by smart meters and the fixed network meters are being used. These smart meters have a leak detection functionality, an estimated battery life of 10 to 16 years, and no moving parts, thus preventing wear and prolonging meter life as opposed to plastic meters, ” he said.
He said technological innovations aimed at improving their services such as drones have enabled them to read over 509 customer meters in low-income communities such as Tetegu in less than 20 minutes apart from other interventions to improve accurate reading and billing.
He also mentioned that his outfit has also procured 30,000 smart meters to be used in various parts of the country.
Touching on tariffs, he stated that the tariff charged by the company has not been reflective enough to meet the operational cost of the company over the years.
According to him, the high cost of the company’s operations however makes it imperative for them to relook at adjusting the tariff in the future to enable GWCL to meet its cost of operations.
Ing. Braimah further mentioned illegal mining activities, sand winning, and pollution of river bodies, causing high turbidity of water bodies resulting in an increase in treatment costs as some of the major challenges facing the company.
He also bemoaned the rate at which the company’s transmission pipelines and distribution mains were been vandalised by road contractors and road users resulting in pipe bursts and leakages among others.
The Managing Director, therefore, asked Ghanaians to desist from engaging in negative activities that have the potential of destroying the country’s water bodies as the company makes efforts to continuously provide safe and reliable water to Ghanaians.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah