Minister Orders Arrest Of Ice-water Sellers, If

....they sell over "controlled price

Satchet water producers explain price increase

The Association of Drinking Water Producers has described as "unfortunate" an order by the Ashanti Regional Minister for the arrest of those selling sachet water at 300 cedis instead of 200 cedis.

The association said the Minister's action was "arbitrary and most unfortunate", and should therefore be reviewed.

Addressing a press conference in Kumasi on Monday, Mr Patrick Adu-Gyamfi, the chairman, pointed out that the recent increase in the price of sachet water announced by the association was influenced by the steep rise in their overhead costs.

He said for example, sealing rubber that used to sell at 14,500 cedis before December last year now goes for between 19,000 and 20,000 cedis.

At the same time, 1,000 pieces of packing rubber had shot to 300,000 cedis from 225,000 cedis, while one micron had gone up from 25,000 cedis to 40,000 cedis with the price of carbonated filters having increased to 140,000 cedis from 120,000 cedis.

Mr Adu-Gyamfi also touched on the upsurge of the maintenance cost of vehicles they use for the distribution of their products as well as wages of their employees. He said in spite of the upward adjustment of utility tariffs, the association had since the year 2000 not reviewed the price of sachet water.

"We have now come to a point where we cannot break even and our businesses are collapsing", he said, adding that, this was why they decided to add a moderate 100 cedis to the price.

He said they were of the firm conviction that if the Regional Minister had met them over the matter, he definitely would have appreciated the position.