Water company cuts water supply to Sege Health Centre

Three Town Water, a private water company at Sege in the Ada West District, has disconnected water supply to the Sege Health Centre due to the centre’s over five years' unpaid water bills.

With the exact debt yet to be made available to the health facility, the Assistant Physician and Matron in charge of the Sege Health Centre, Madam Patience Gidiglo, explained that the health facility's plea to the water company to give them some time to settle the arrears was disregarded.

Madam Patience Gidiglo told The Finder that the Ada East District Assembly, then Ada District, a district they used to fall under, was responsible for the payment of the said arrears to Three Town Water Company because all the revenues the facility generated were accounted to the district then.

She said for over five years when nobody from the water company visited the health centre to complain of non-payment of bills, the management did not know there were some unpaid bills until Sege was made a district and independent from the Ada District.

The Sege Health Centre, she continued, started some payments sometime last year but because the backlog was still huge, the private water company, late last year, disconnected the health facility in spite of several pleas to allow them pay their arrears by instalment.

The facility has now contracted some persons to supply them water in gallons at exorbitant prices for their clinical activities.

Madam Gidiglo added that the facility had officially informed the Sege District Health Directorate of their water supply disconnection by Three Town Water Company; however, no news have since been heard from the area's health directorate or assembly.

Besides the severe water 'drought' the facility is faced with, Madam Patience Gidiglo said the facility lacks wards, mentioning that the health centre has 10 wards - two each for emergency and clinical attendances and the other four for maternity.

Owing to the lack of wards, she said the facility often transferred critical cases to Sogakofe, Tema and Accra, where patients can be put on admission.

She said President Mahama mentioned giving the Sege Health Centre a polyclinic status, and therefore hoped that the President would keep to his words as he had done to other health facilities, which she said have seen major facelifts.

Madam Patience Gidiglo acknowledged the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) in Sege for cleaning the facility during its anniversary celebration.

The health centre, she said, is fortunate not to have recorded any cholera case "because the GPCC have regularly embarked on clean-ups in the town and educate the people on the need to keep their community clean."