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29.04.2005 General News

GWCL to ration water to Accra

29.04.2005 LISTEN
By Graphic

The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has instituted a programme to ration potable water to Accra and Tema as a short term solution to the acute water shortage that has hit some communities within the two cities.

Mr Samuel G.O Lamptey, the acting managing director of the company, made this known when the minister for works and housing, Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman and the minister for energy, Professor Mike Ocquaye visited the Dome water booster station to familiarize themselves with expansion works which would enable Dome and its surrounding communities which had been without water for the past 10 years to get treated water.

The acting managing director said the company was currently pumping 82 million gallons of treated water daily to the two cities, instead of the targeted 120 million gallons.

He attributed the shortfall of about 38 million gallons a day to the inadequate supply of surface water for the company's treatment plants and hinted that the company was exploring the possibility of tapping underground water to boost water delivery to Accra and Tema.

Mr Lamptey informed the ministers that the Dome water booster station, which was currently on test trial was capable of pumping 50,000 gallons of water daily from Weija to solve the acute water problem facing the people of Dome and Taifa.

He said about ¢20 billion was being mobilized from the internally-generated revenue of the company to lay new pipelines to connect water to areas without water as a long term solution to the acute water shortage facing Accra and surrounding communities.

Mr Owusu-Agyeman said the Government was fast tracking the construction of pipelines from the Weija water treatment plant to the water booster station of Okponglo as a long-term solution to the annual water crisis that had been with Accra and Tema for the past 10 to 20 years.

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