'No water shortage in Takoradi and environs'

Residents in Sekondi-Takoradi have been assured that there is no cause for alarm and that the metropolis has enough facilities for the production of potable water which could last for many years.

According to the Western Regional Manager of Ghana Water Company, Daniel Adjetey Adjei, there is enough water in the Inchaban Dam and other sources from Daboase to cater for all the people in the metropolis for a number of years.

He said laying of new pipe-lines in the metropolis by the company would also go a long way to increase the quantity of daily water supply from the present 1.7 million to four million gallons when completed.

Speaking at a press conference organised by the Western Regional office of GWCL last Thursday as part of activities marking this year"s celebration of World Water Day under the theme "Coping with water scarcity” in Takoradi, Mr Adjei however said the story would be different if people in the metropolis fail to take very good care of the facilities, particularly water bodies.

It was to this end that he urged them to stop farming around rivers like the Pra, which is the main source of drinking water. He said but for other factors like power fluctuations and poor conservation of water, there was no way that residents in the Sekondi-Takoradi and its immediate environs could ever face water shortages.

The Water Company regional boss noted that there has been remarkable improvement in water supply in the metropolis over the last few years - for example, the company which was pumping about forty-eight thousand metric cubes of water monthly during the dry season last year, is producing over seventy thousand metric cubes over the same period this year.

Mr Adjei urged the residents to consider themselves “lucky” since a major study, Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, reveals that one out of every three people today face water shortages, around 1.2 billion people of the world's population live in areas of scarcity of water, with about 500 million more people approaching this situation.

He reiterated that while one out of every five people in developing countries lack access to sufficient clean water, average water use in Europe and the United States of America ranges between two hundred and six hundred litres a day.

It was against this background that he urged the people to use water wisely, adding that wise use of water will be needed if all the Millennium Development Goals are to be attained by the year 2016.

A very strong case, he said, has been made that improved access to water, sanitation and health will contribute across all of the MDGs, including targets in education and health.