Water crisis until 2014, says GUWL

Ongoing water rationing for residents of the capital won't end until 2014, say managers of Ghana's water distribution system.

Communications Manager of the Ghana Urban Water Limited (GUWL), Stanley Martey, says the water crisis will endure until 2014 when work on the Kpong water treatment plant is expected to be completed.

He said the that once operational, the $300 million plant will purify almost 45 million gallons of water per day.

That, he said, will be a major boost to the Greater Accra Region’s current daily rate of water supply.

Lately, there has been aggravated water rationing in Accra and parts of Tema owing to what officials say are defects in four filters at the Weija treatment plant.

Mr Martey, who was contributing to discussions on Joy FM’s revitalised Super Morning Show Tuesday, said that this latest rationing exercise, which is expected to last two weeks, will allow the GUWL time to institute interim measures to resolve the problem. After that, he explained, the intensified exercise will end and the routine rationing which residents have endured for years will return.

He added that a project to reconstruct the badly damaged filters has also been proposed and is expected to take four to six months to complete.

However, the Kpong water plant will represent a long-term solution to Accra’s water problems, he assured.

“It will improve on coverage of water from...the current 60 percent to about 90 percent, which means that we are going to have more water such that the rationing programme may even end,” he stated.

“If it doesn’t end or some areas wouldn’t get water then it means they do not have distribution mains within their communities.”

“So hopefully [in] 2014 the rationing programme may end or may not be severe as it is,” Mr Martey said, adding that another project to expand the distribution of water is also underway.