Ho Water Company over-bills customers

Ho, Aug 26, GNA - There is growing resentment among customers of the Ghana Water Company in the Ho Municipality over water bills they have been receiving from the company in recent times. A survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) revealed that most customers were billed far and above what they consumed. Mr Alexander Dzokoto, a public servant resident in the SSNIT flats, said he spent the greater part of last July away from Ho on leave but the bill he received from the company for that month was higher than the previous ones.

He blamed the situation on the monopoly enjoyed by the company and appealed to the government to allow private investors to invest in the water sector.

Ms Faustine Deh, a resident of "Area 51", said the metre reading at her house as at August 20 year was 164 but the July bill she received indicated that she had consumed 208. An official of the company who spoke to the GNA on condition of anonymity said the company received several complaints from its customers.

He said initial investigations revealed that some of the company's metre readers were not reading metres of customers and were therefore feeding the company with wrong data leading to over-billing and under-billing of their customers.

The official said the situation was causing a lot of embarrassment to the company and management was undertaking a special exercise to identify the affected customers.

The official said a committee would soon be set up to investigate all complaints lodged by customers and appealed to them to exercise restraint and bear with them to enable them remedy the situation. The official said the most affected areas are the SSNIT Flats, and "Area 51" and their environs. 26 Aug 08