GWC to spend 15 million dollars on expansion

Accra, Feb 8, GNA - The Ghana Water Company (GWC) is to spend a total of 15 million dollars this year on its First Year Investment Programme (FYIP).

Mr Michael Agyeman, Chief Manager in charge of Public Relations who made this disclosure to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra, said the programme would take the form of expansion and rehabilitation works on existing networks.

Mr Agyeman said this component was designed to support the increasing amount of treated water for sale; extend service to low-income areas; and rehabilitate existing networks to reduce non-revenue water.

He stated that under the FYIP programme, seven out of the 10 regions would benefit from the rehabilitation and renewal of pipelines, as well as the provision of new ones.

He said Eastern, Brong-Ahafo and Upper West were the only regions, which would not benefit from the programme aimed at achieving improved service coverage and help reduce unaccounted for water.

Mr Agyeman said under the Subsequent Investment Programmes (SIPs), GWC would carry out systems expansion by way of prioritisation, adding, "prioritisation would be guided by the objective to increase and improve service coverage with emphasis on low income groups."

On measures to improve performance and reduce cost, the Chief Manager intimated that GWC would need 1.6 billion dollars over the next 25 years if water supply was to meet demand through 2020.

He said it was gratifying to note that the combined effect of prudent utilization of scarce financial resources and the implementation of management improvement measures, had enabled management to mobilize internally generated funds to extend distribution networks in selected parts of the country.

Mr Agyeman advised Ghanaians to make judicious use of water in order to ensure that the commodity was not wasted in the system. 08 Jan. 06