Consumers of water within the Northern sector enclave are indebted to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) of about GH¢45 million as of March 2023.

This according to management is hampering the production of quality services for both domestic and commercial because management finds it access to enough funds to procure the necessary equipment to provide sustainable water to its customers.

Also, the company is challenged with access to enough funds to rehabilitate the treatment plants and other services to ensure the free flow of water.

According to management, the company records ten illegal connection unearth in a week from domestic, standpipes, especially from the Kumbungu district and other communities, commercial from the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies(MMDAs), secondary and tertiary institutions, and security agencies among others.

The Northern Regional Public Relations Officer for GWCL Nii Abbey Nicholas who disclosed this in an interview noted that the company is under pressure to provide quality drinking water but is financially constraint.

The debt has contributed to non-accounted water produced which stood at about 43.30 percent and over 30 percent of the figure is from commercial loss via illegal connections, he said.

He noted that another challenge is also the extending of pipelines to some communities without any reference to GWCL and as a result, most of the materials used are inferior which leads to leakages and bursts thereby affecting production and revenue mobilization.

The destruction of pipelines by contractors affects our activities with hostility, threat and resistance from customers to staff, alongside political and traditional interference continue to pose challenges in discharging duties he added.

He noted that the enforcement team has been embarking on mobilization exercise and demand notices are served to individuals or institutions indebted to the company.

Those customers who failed to respond to the notices are arraigned before court for prosecution because the demand notification issued to the defaulting customers serves as the last resort for prosecution he explained.

We are also indebted to our suppliers with an amount of GH40 million including power providers and other companies that supplied the company with resource materials he said.

If customers are able to pay, we would be able to defray our debts and be able to improve on our services he stressed.

He said the company is currently partnering with the Catholic Relief Service (CRS) in creating Tamale water fund to provide alternative livelihoods for those engaged in illegal activities along the river bank.

With the sand-winning issues, we are working closely with the stakeholders to come up with proper guidelines to regulate their activities he explained.

Touching on the Bagre dam issue, he noted that there is going to be dredging activities at the Nawuni raw water intake point to accumulate more volumes of water for abstraction and treatment purposes during the spillage and the rainy season for both commercial and domestic use…

He said management is also planning to engage in some afforestation at the degraded lands along the river banks.

As part of the Tamale-Damongo water expansion project, a major rehabilitation exercise would take place at the Dalun treatment plant center the first phase being the documentation, designs, pipelines and the acquisition of land completed left with the second phase being the rehabilitation and the construction to address the perennial water shortages in Tamale, Damongo and Yendi and their neighbouring communities, he said.

He appealed to customers to ensure paying for the right amount of water used to enable the company generate enough revenue to expand production.

He added that a convenience platform system has been created to enable customers now pay for their bills via the various telcos irrespective of their geographical area as a means of easing the stress customers go through in paying their debt.