Ghana water company headquarters mortgaged?

As a result of a $3 million indebtedness to Barclays Bank U.K, the Ghana Water Company (GWC) has mortgaged its headquarters situated in the ministries as a collateral, according to Network herald.

The $3m loan was meant for the construction of 13 overhead tanks to improve water distribution in the Accra-Tema metropolis. The company is now cash-strapped and is under intense pressure to pay the debt and many others.

Sources close to the GWC who see the purchase of these overhead tanks as a waste of resources are blaming the administration of former managing director, Charles Adjei for mismanaging the resources of the company. “We have misapplied our funds, the GWC is now a bottomless pit” one of our sources stated.

Our investigations have also revealed that the huge indebtedness of the company has compelled it to pressurize the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) for a 300 per cent increase in tariffs to enable it pay off its debt before ‘alarm blows’.

Interestingly, all the overhead tanks have not been working since their installation some three years ago, and the metropolitan area is still faced with the water problems that informed the purchase of the tanks. Some of the tanks could be located around Accra Girls secondary school, Teshie, Adenta, Tantra Hills and Accra Teacher Training College among others.

According to our sources, the company is so indebted that monies collected as water bills are even not enough to pay its debts and workers salaries. In addition to the Barclays bank debt, the GWC also owes Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) an undisclosed amount and presently pays ?1.6 billion a week.

The company has been described as a bottomless pit that our sources say needs a governmental intervention in its bid to involve the private sector in the water sector to prevent a major imminent disaster.

Our investigations have also revealed that the water sector has received more donor assistance than most sectors of the economy. The government made several efforts especially between the 1970s and the 90s to improve the operational and financial viability of the company.

Documents available to the Network Herald have shown that the GWC received assistance from many donors including the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and CIDA among others for various projects, which have all not yielded any major transformation in the sector.

Between 1969-1973, the company received an amount of $3.5 million from the World Bank for the expansion of the water supply distribution network in Accra-Tema and construction of sewerage network in central Accra.

GWC also received an amount of $10.4 million from the World Bank with additional assistance AfDB and CIDA- bringing total to $51.5 million for the expansion of water supply facilities in Accra-Tema metropolis to meet the needs of some 800,000 people and extend services to some 170, 000 people in outlaying small towns.

Between 1983 and 1990, the World bank also provided an amount of $13.5 million for the strengthening of GWC’s managerial capabilities through attachment of five expatriate experts to key managerial positions, improvement of operational and financial skills through training exchange programme with Thames Water of UK, rehabilitation of major transmission line in Accra-Tema metropolitan water supply system to improve reliability of Accra water supply system.

The AfDB gave the GWC $20m for the rehabilitation of Accra-Tema metropolitan area system while the Italian government provided $9m for the rehabilitation of the Kpong-Tema-Accra transmission lines.

CIDA also gave $41m for the rehabilitation of the Accra-Tema metropolitan area, GWC assistance project for water supply for rural towns in the Northern Regions. The company also took $45.5m from KfW for upgrading of Cape Coast and Sekondi-Takoradi water supply.