Coronavirus: Accra Desalination Plant To Be Restored To Enhance Prevention Measures

The Accra Desalination Plant at Nungua is set to be restored as the Ghana Water Company Limited contributes to efforts to fight the novel coronavirus in Ghana.

This is in a bid to make sure there is enough running water as possible as the country moves to improve the hygiene of citizens as a preventive measure.

The $126 million Accra Desalination Plant was shut down in October 2019 for maintenance.

One of the widely recommended measures for coronavirus prevention has been regular handwashing under running water.

The Communications Manager of the company, Stanley Martey told Citi News the company is “working seriously around the clock to support the operators of the desalination plant in Teshie Nungua so that it can come on board on time so that we have more water in the system.”

“We are expecting the [Accra Desalination Plant] to be on board as early as possible because we also have to support them to enable them to come on board and then we can have more water in the system,” he added.

Mr. Martey also said the company had a fleet of tankers on standby “to serve essential service providers especially the hospitals and the schools where there are a lot of people gathered together.”

Ghana’s water and sanitation ‘crisis’

Water.org has described Ghana as having water crisis because more than five million people rely on surface water to meet their daily water needs, leaving them vulnerable to water-related illness and diseases.

A further 81 percent of Ghanaians lack access to improved sanitation or are without toilet facilities.

Daily water demand in Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) stands at 150 million gallons but the Kpong and Weija treatment plants, the major water treatment plants serving the area, can only produce 93 million gallons a day.

Thus the Water deficit in Accra stands at 57 million gallons.

Coronavirus spread in Ghana

Ghana has so far detected six cases of the novel coronavirus, four of which were announced on Sunday.

Three of the newest cases were recorded in Accra while one other was recorded in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.

To prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, the standard recommendations coming from the World Health Organisation and the Ghana Health Service are regular hand washing, covering one's mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs.

People are also advised to avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.

---citinewsroom