Bolgatanga Runs Out Of Water

The Ghana Water Company Limited has incurred the wrath of its customers in the Bolgatanga Municipality and Bolgatanga East District in the Upper East Region for rationing water without a timetable.

For the past three weeks, residents in the affected areas said their business and domestic activities have been hampered by water rationing, and blamed management for embarking on the exercise without prior notice to them, and without a timetable to guide them plan their activities.

School children and patients at health facilities have not been spared either.

But, according to the Regional Chief Manager of Ghana Water Company in Bolgatanga, Mr. Kenneth Ennim, the company had to ration water because the production capacity was now below demand.

“As I said already, the population in Bolga is such that this has led to serious rationing of water. In otherwords, the demand for water, in terms of volumes, now outstrips supply, so we are not able to produce adequate quantities,” he stressed.

According to Mr. Ennim, the Vea Water Treatment Plant has a daily production capacity of 7,200 cubic meters, but can only produce 4,000 cubic meters, because the machines are now obsolete.

Meanwhile, the current daily demand of water is estimated at 8,400 cubic meters.

Again, the Zuarungu Treatment Plant, with a capacity of 1,200 cubic metres, can only produce 400 cubic metres. Meanwhile, the area has an estimated daily demand of 1,000 cubic meters.

He also partly attributed the situation to frequent power outages and pipe bursts on the main transmission line from the plant site at Vea in the Bongo District to Bolgatanga.

He was, however, hopeful that if completed, a new water treatment plant at Tono near Navrongo and the replacement of obsolete pumps at Vea Treatment Plant, which are ongoing, will help end the crisis.

Mr. Ennim disclosed that “Management has put in place a programme to redress this situation, and a new water treatment facility is being located, or is being designed and is being reconstructed at Tono near Navrongo, and, in due course of time, the water shortages will be a thing of the past.”