Togo plans to tap Ghana's potable water network

Togo is looking into the possibility of connecting to neighbouring Ghana's water network, in order to directly tap either treated potable water or untreated water to be processed in Lome.

Togo's main objective is to supply daily each urban dweller with 80 litres of water, 30 litres in the semi-urban centres and 20 litres in the rural areas. The problem now was that its water facilities and reserves can only supply an average of 50 litres of potable water a day to those living in the urban areas, the country's water managers said.

Though the situation was not alarming, the managers admitted that only 65 percent of urban dwellers, 50 percent in the semi-urban centres and 45 percent in the rural areas have access to potable water.

Despite being equipped with water mains, some entire zones do not have access to potable water because of ageing facilities coupled with increased needs due to a soaring population, the managers said.

Sources at the Normalisation Cell of Togo hinted that ground water reserves at Cacaveli (10 km north of Lome) could no longer meet the needs of the Togolese capital.

In a bid to make up for the water shortage, the authorities have carried out some prospecting works in the ground water of Tsevie (35 km north of Lome), but the investment needed to tap the water reserves to Lome were deemed beyond reach by the water authorities.

Estimates in 2000 indicated that 57 million of cubic metres of potable water was treated and served to 1,803,715 people in Togo's urban centres, while 31 million cubic metres was supplied to 1,194,844 inhabitants in the semi-urban centres and the same quantity to 2,016,216 dwellers in the rural areas.

Some 45,225 private water connections are registered in Togo, in addition to 77,002 water fountains.