Tap water 99% safer than packaged water - Stanley Martey

Water produced by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) for domestic and industrial uses is safer for consumption than 99 per cent of packaged water on the market, Head of Corporate Communications at the GWCL, Stanley Martey, has said.

He allayed the public’s fears that tap water was not safe for drinking, saying instead that the public could go ahead to use water from the GWCL given that it is safe for consumption.

His comment comes on the heels of a report by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) that “three out of every five people drink water contaminated with faeces” in Ghana.

A press release from UNICEF to mark the commemoration of World Water Day on Wednesday March 22 indicated that the situation increased the risk of contracting diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera.

Speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Thursday 23 March, Mr Martey said: “Water that flows through our taps from the Ghana Water Company Limited is safe, absolutely safe for consumption, and it’s even better than the packaged water that we have on the market. So we do not have a problem.

“Now with the research that the UNICEF representative presented, I think we may have to get the operational definition for the faeces that he’s referred to. Now most of our river bodies are contaminated and if you look at our rural areas and stuff, most of them drink untreated water, but for us in urban areas, the water that flows through our pipelines is treated. It is also coming from the fact we are polluting our water bodies to the extent that most of our river bodies are currently untreatable and in the near future if we do not manage most of them well, it will be untreatable. So I think UNICEF is coming from that angle, so we may have to get the operational definition of the faeces that [it] used.

“I want to assure the general public that water that flows through our taps, produced by the Ghana Water Company Limited, is safe and absolutely safe for consumption and I want to urge the general public that the water that flows through our taps is far better than 99 per cent of the packaged water that we have on the market. Research has proven that and you can go to the Water Research Institute and get a copy.”