The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has explained that the current water rationing in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis is due to the low level of the Pra River.
The Pra River is the source of water supply in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.
According to the GWCL, its intake area of the Pra River is silted up, as a result of the activities of illegal miners, to the extent that the company had to spend thousands of Ghana cedis to dredge the intake area. “For instance, we are going to do a bigger form of dredging and we are going to spend about GH¢400,000 for that work, and this is as a result of galamsey activities,” the company revealed.
Currently, the minimum water demand for Sekondi-Takoradi is about 15 million gallons a day.
However, due to the low level of the river, the GWCL is not able to get adequate quantity of water to meet the demand.
The Western Regional Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the GWCL, Nana Yaw Banieh, in an interview said, “The level of the water in the Pra River is still very low, and because of that we are not able to abstract enough quantity for our customers.”
He said the challenge now is that the company’s plant is not able to abstract adequate water to meet the demand of 15 million gallons for Sekondi-Takoradi.
“Another problem is that when the pumps are abstracting water, they end up taking in lots of sand or mud, which damages the pumps and the company has to spend huge sums of money to repair and maintain them,” he indicated.
He suggested that the major solution to the problem is to flush out the greedy galamsey operators who continue to destroy the water bodies.
He said the company has started building a new treatment plant which is expected to produce about 22 million gallons of water a day, and it is projected to be completed in 2025.
“With the support of the government, the company has started the process to construct a new treatment plant to serve the people of Sekondi-Takoradi.
“If all things go well, by the end of 2025 we will have a new treatment plant that will be producing 22 million gallons of water a day to meet the demands of the residents in the area,” he added.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi