Correspondence from Northern region

The Chairman of Parliament’s Select Committee on Sanitation and Water Resources, John Kwabena Oti Bless, has assured the people of Tamale that his committee will impress on the NDC government to fix the perennial Tamale water crisis.

According to him, the NDC government is working to fix the water supply challenges in Tamale and its surrounding districts as part of President Mahama’s agenda to reset the country.

The Nkwanta North Member of Parliament was speaking to journalists at the Ghana Water Company Limited’s Water Treatment Plant at Dalun in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region, where members of the Sanitation and Water Resources Committee paid a familiarisation visit at the end of last week.

“We are in a different era. President Mahama is a very committed leader. He has assured the people of this country that he is very determined to reset this country within the next four years, and I believe that if this issue is carried to President Mahama, something will be done about it. Currently, there is an ongoing arrangement between the government and the European Union and other international donors. We are going to hammer more on that to ensure that the money is ready. Once that comes in, this problem will be solved,” Oti Bless assured.

The Chairman of the Select Committee on Sanitation and Water Resources added that they will submit a report on the matter before parliament, while also lobbying the government to ensure the perennial challenge is addressed.

“We have received complaints and reports about the Tamale water system, especially in the dry season. The people of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly and its surrounding districts complain bitterly of the water crisis. So we decided that as a committee with an oversight responsibility, it is important to visit the place to see things for ourselves, and here we are, we have been told that it is true. So what we need to do as a committee is to present a report before parliament and also lobby the appropriate authority to ensure that the problem is solved,” he noted.

Member of the committee and MP for Savelugu, Hajia Fatahiya Abdul Aziz, bemoaned the water supply challenges facing her constituency.

She said that despite her efforts to improve the situation, the water supply in the Savelugu Municipality remains a major concern.

She said as part of efforts to improve the situation, she bought two water tankers to supply her constituents with water and has also dug a number of boreholes in some parts of the constituency; however, that has still not improved the situation.

Hajia Fatahiya appealed to President Mahama to help fix the perennial water crisis in most parts of the Northern Region.

The Dalun Water Treatment Plant of the GWCL supplies water mainly to the Tamale Metropolis as well as the Savelugu and Sagnarigu Municipalities and the Tolon and Kumbungu Districts.

The water company says the rapid population growth, against the little expansion works on its system at Dalun to meet current demands, is a major contributory factor to the perennial crisis.

Stephen Amihere Mensah, Northern Regional Chief Manager, GWCL, explained that since the installation of the plant in 1972, the Dalun Water Treatment Plant has seen only one major expansion work while the population of the area has grown from less than 100,000 to over 1.4 million.

“That time, it was producing 13,000 cubic litres of water a day; the population of Tamale was less than 100,000. So in the 90s, the water crisis started in Tamale.

"In 2008, the plant was expanded from 13,000 to 45,000; that time, the population of Tamale had grown to a little less than 400,000. Since that
time, the plant has seen no expansion, and the population of Tamale now is more than 1.4 million,” he explained.