Kpong (E/R), Dec. 1, GNA- The management of Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has said the company requires immediate expansion of its Kpong water supply project to enable it adequately meet the water requirements of the increasing communities and consumers in the Greater Accra Region.
The expansion of the project involve the construction of a new 285,000 cubic metres a day of water intake, expansion of the treatment plant to 250 cubic metres daily and construction of new transmission mains through Dodowa, Adenta to the Accra Booster station.
The company's investment opportunities include financing of turnkey projects, private sector involvement in water supply and sewerage operations, introduction of innovative maintenance managed systems and bottling of water for local and offshore markets.
Mr Ebenezer Gambrah, Chief Manager, (Production and Booster station), said this at Kpong on Monday when briefing members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Works and Housing who paid an inspection tour of the Kpong Head Works.
Other areas are establishment of subsidiary companies to operate Drilling, Unit, Workshop and Stores, establishment of Chemical Plants for the production of Chlorine, soda ash, calcium hypochlorite and partnership in procurement, installation, operation and management of pre-payment metering system.
The visit is to afford the members of the Committee the opportunity to assess the state and condition of the Head Works following the invitation to investors to submit technical and financial proposals on the Kpong Water Supply Expansion Project scheduled to start by 2005.
Mr Gambrah said the need for the expansion is long overdue since the demand for water in the Accra Metropolis has kept on increasing since the 1990's with the creation of new communities.
He said the 10 million gallon-capacity Tema reservoir is unable to contain water for even one hour because of the demand from pressures especially with the springing up of more industries at the Free zone, the Nungua township as well as the Eastern and Northern parts of Accra.
Mr Gambrah said the company intends to open up another pipeline through Dodowa to Madina as part of its expansion programme.
Mr Samson Ottu Darko, Chairman of the Committee called on the management of the Company to ensure that they reduce to a minimum the rate of leakages in the system and improve on the billing system in order to gain consumers confidence in their ability to provide potable water.
He urged the workers to ensure efficiency and cost effectiveness in their operations in the provision of water so as to attract the private sector and other entrepreneurial skills.
Mr Darko said the management and workers of the company should realise that government cannot continue to waste precious resources through mismanagement of such facilities.
He advised the workers to be up to the vision of the company by becoming a reputable utility provider that is valued by its customers so as to play an important role in the socio-economic development of the country.
The members asked a number of questions that centred on why there are frequent water interruptions or no supply at all, why the company has not expanded its services to meet the growing needs of the people and why there are no standby generators to pump water in case of power failure.
Mr Gambrah and his technical staff explained that the company could not run another plant to pump water since it would not be cost effective and that the existing equipment cannot on its own increase water supply until it is expanded.
He said pre-paid metres are currently on trail while the Greater Accra Region has been sub-divided into sections and directorates to bring about efficiency, reduce the leakages and put in place more disciplined measures to reduce losses and increase productivity as the interim measures.
Mr Francisco K. Adjei, Kpong Station Manager said the pressure on the company is so immense that even producers of sachet water use treated water from the company and called it "pure water" even though there is no spring in any part of Accra.
He said water pumped from the Kpong Water works is the best in the sub-region and vessels prefer to berth in Ghana to re-fill their supplies because the treatment of water.
Mr Adjei said the station has not seen a major rehabilitation since 1982 and that there was the need to have additional 40 million capacity plant while sometimes the water levels at the intake falls below average while the threats of weeds disrupts the free flow of water.
The members inspected the reservoirs, treatment and chemical plants, pumping station and the quality assurance laboratory where they were briefed on the activities that take place before potable water is pumped and supplied to consumers.
At a briefing with the staff, it came to light that the proposed private sector participation (PSP) in water supply has created uneasiness among the workers, as there are rumours that about 2,000 of them would be laid off when the programme commences.
