Water treatment cost up by 38% in Ashanti

Cost of water treatment at the Barekese and Owabi head works, supplying water to Kumasi and other outlying districts had gone up by 38 per cent within the last four years due to negative human activities at the catchment area.

Mr Francis Awortwi, Ghana Water Company’s acting Ashanti Regional Production Manager, said tree felling and increased human encroachment had led to a situation where the run-off of alluvia enters the dams, especially during the rainy season, making the raw water quality turbid.

There is also the dumping of solid and industrial waste from the Suame light industrial area, which enters the dams through small rivers and creeks and this combined with illegal mining activities tend to worsen the water quality.

That had significantly increased the levels of organic pollution, necessitating a corresponding increase in chemical application to make the water safe for human use, adding that, “this adds on cost”.

Mr Awortwi, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi, said although they have been using permissible quantities of water treatment chemicals - aluminum sulphate, and calcium hypochlorite, it was likely more chemicals would have be used in the near future if such activities continued.

He warned that if left unchecked, it could lead to extreme siltation of both dams and that could reduce the capacity or volume of the water, a development that would pose a huge challenge to water supply in the region.

The company, he said, was doing everything to help restore some level of sanity, citing intensified education campaign through radio and public forums.

It has additionally been carrying out daily sampling in all of its distribution systems.

The two dams, Barekese and Owabi, between them, supply 33 million gallons of potable water to Kumasi and parts of peripheral Ejisu Municipality, Atwima-Nwabiagya, Kwabre-East and Atwima-Kwanwoma Districts.