Dr. Bob Alfa, Director of Planning at the Water Resources Commission, has revealed that the city of Accra has enough water resource to ensure water supply all year round.
Speaking in an interview, Dr. Alfa made known that, although there exist enough water resources to supply to all parts of Accra, there is a lack of capacity on the part of the GWCL to treat this resource and distribute same to meet required demand due to the lack of available capital for investment.
The Director to a greater entent divulged that the biggest challenge towards harnessing Ghanaʼs water resources is not the issue of climate change, but a lack of purposive investment in the sector.
The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), in a statement issued at the beginning of 2023, announced the commencement of water demand management measures in some parts of the country, especially the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Western and the Northern Regions, as a result of the depletion of raw water from various water bodies, occasioned by the onset of the dry season.
According to him, “You can have enough water resource even in good quality, but you have to take the water from one source into the houses of people, and that require some level of investment.”
“Accra gets its water supply from two sources, first from Weija and then also from Kpong.
“If you look at water resources availability in the Akosombo Dam, we have enough water supply. However, there’s a capacity that has been installed to move water from Kpong to Accra. If that capacity is exceeded, definitely they will have to do supply management.”
Dr Alfa
Dr. Alfa opined that, the major issue for the supply has to do with the capacity. “Demand is going up and the capacity is still the same, and so definitely, there will be a shortfall.” he emphasized.
“In the dry season, we don’t have rainfall, we have high temperature, high evapo-transpiration and a lot of loss of water resources. We can actually mitigate that by developing the water resources more. But we need some levels of investment.
“The challenge is not just about the impact of climate change. Despite all of these weather challenges, Ghana is still endowed with water resources. Annually, we have 54billion cubic metres of surface water in this country. The challenge is how to distribute it evenly among the population in this country, and that requires heavy investment.”
Dr Alfa
The Director of planning further gave an indication of efforts underway to deal with the issue of Accra’s perennial water demand management issues.
“I know, I’m well aware that GWCL tried to expand the Kpong water supply system. They’re also trying to set up the Aveyime water supply system that will supply water to Tema, and that will also now release the pressure from Tema to supply water to Accra. The one at Weija is also under some rehabilitation. We believe that once these projects are completed, the system will be able to cope with the demand for the next 20 years.”
Dr Alfa
For his part, the Public Relations Officer of the GWCL, Mr. Stanley Martey, bemoaned the capital limitations faced by the company in solving the problem and, therefore, called on the public to help conserve water during these periods.
“There are a number of projects in the pipeline that need to be done, but these projects are capital intensive. On our own as GWCL, we do not have the capacity to go for commercial loans to build a treatment plant. It’s government that has to guarantee, so we do that. Unfortunately, it’s not as we expect.
“In Accra, the demand far outstrips supply. We have put in place some measures to ensure the impact will not be felt. We also expect that customers will do their part to ensure that the situation does not become dire.”
Stanley
Installment Of New Equipments
It will be recalled that the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) announced the interruption in water supply from Wednesday, December 7 to Friday, December 9, 2022.
The interruption was as a result of the installment of new equipments, including new heavy-duty pumps at the Tema Booster Station to replace the 40-year-old pumps.
It formed part of the companies initiative of utilizing its minimum funds in procuring and replacing faulty equipments to boost and improve water supply.
The affected areas were Tema, Industrial Area, Baatsonaa, Coca Cola, Kasapreko, Lashibi, Klagoon, Sakumono, Ashaiman, Adjei-Kojo, Borteyeman, Santoe, Trassaco.
Others include Afresco Estate, Manet Court Regimanuel Estates, O’Reily Senior High School, Airport Hills, Martey Tsuru and surrounding communities.
Management of GWCL as a result rented Water Tankers to supply water to essential Service providers like the hospitals and schools to forestall any eventuality.
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