The face of water shortage
Residents of Sekondi-Takoradi and the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality in the Western Region have been battling an acute water shortage for some weeks now.
The water shortage has badly affected homes, several educational institutions and businesses and the situation has left many to rely on well water, boreholes and other unhygienic sources of water.
The Ghana Water Company Limited has attributed the problem to the low level of water in the Inchaban and Daboase dams which are the main sources of water to the treatment plant, due to the dry season.
According to the GWCL, usually during the dry season the water source goes down because there is no fresh water coming into the river basin at Daboase which is processed at the dam site at Inchaban, so day-by-day the levels go down.
“When the water levels go down we are not able to extract enough water as needed if it was in the rainy season where there was so much water,” the company explained.
Nana Yaw Barima-Barnie, Western Regional Communication Manager of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), who revealed this, therefore appealed to the people in those areas to use water judiciously.
He also advised the public against the use of treated water for the watering of lawns, gardens as well as the washing of vehicles and the general misuse of water.
He said the acute water shortage in parts of Takoradi and EKMA had occasioned rationing of water in those areas.
He noted that the affected areas were expanding making the demand of water high while the amount of water the company produced sometimes did not meet the demand.
He expressed hope that the situation would be improved when the expansion of the Sekondi-Takoradi water supply project was completed to provide over 22 million tonnes of water to the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis alone.
The communication manager said “not until there is water in the river basin” the problem could persist, and appealed to the residents to remain calm as the company worked tirelessly to provide and share the little water available to all.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi