GWCL Briefs MPs On Its Problems

The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) needs to invest about 100 million US dollars annually to achieve its targets for the supply of water to all parts of the country.

However, GWCL?s current total annual investment capital, which is derived mostly from the sake of water, amounts to about 30 million US dollars. This huge shortfall makes it impossible for the company to invest in the required machinery and technology to increase the volume of water that GWCL can treat and supply.

He said that GWCL had for years not been allowed to charge realistic tariffs, hence its inability to replace aging pipes or to purchase new equipment and chemicals.

Describing the water supply situation as ?a crisis rather than a problem?, Dr Brempong-Yeboah said that GWCL?s engineers had been doing their best to keep the systems running but now they were simply too old. As part of efforts to introduce reforms in the water distribution industry, Dr Brempong-Yeboah said that controversial Private Sector Partnership (PSP) initiative represented the final stage in the government?s efforts to ensure that the system was adequately developed.