Asesewa water crisis blamed on abuse of free water policy

Correspondence from Eastern Region

Systems Manager of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) at Asesewa in the Upper Manya Krobo District of the Eastern Region, Godfred Nimoh has appealed to residents of Asesewa to resort to the judicious use of pipe-borne water as the commodity is rationed and measures are taken to resolve the current acute water shortage in the area.

The area has for weeks now experienced water shortage to the extent that residents resorted to travelling long distances to fetch water from streams and boreholes for domestic and other purposes.

School children have had to wake up at dawn to walk long distances for water to take their bath before going to school, which makes them report late to school.

But blaming the development on the abuse of the commodity among other factors, Godfred Nimoh told GhanaWeb that some residents took advantage of the current free water policy announced by President Akufo-Addo in July, 2020 to resort to the indiscriminate and reckless use of water.

“What I’ve also realized is that, let's also not forget that we’re in free water policy so somebody who used to fetch let’s say, two or three buckets a day now will go and fetch more than necessary,” said Mr. Nimoh, adding that Agency was educating the people against the practice.

He said “We have been talking to them. At least if it is one bucket you want to fetch or two buckets and you want to fetch, you fetch it and then you move but that is not what we [are] seeing so we’re educating them so that at least, for them having theirs, other households can also get theirs.

Some residents, he added also resorted to relying on the free water for construction purposes.

Asesewa has twenty-eight stand-pipes and Mr. Nimoh says some residents with pipes in their homes preferred to fetch from the community standpipes free of charge to avoid incurring any costs at home.

Aside from the abuse of water, however, the Systems Manager also explained to GhanaWeb that low pressure from its two pump stations at Odometa and Agbom, both suburbs of Asesewa which run during the day and night respectively resulted in the failure of most households to receive water supply from its systems.

He said while some homes received water, others did not, resulting in the acute water crisis.

“Our operations are based on pressure so if the pressure is high definitely, those there will have it, if it is low, that means that you’re not going to have it,” explained Mr. Nimoh.

To salvage the problem, the CWSA has resorted to rationing water supply to residents as an interim measure.

The situation prompted a stakeholder meeting between the CWSA, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area and other stakeholders where a decision to zone the town into two parts to ration water to residents was reached.

“So at the moment we have divided the community into two, zones ‘A’ and zone ‘B’ where zone ‘A’ has its water the whole day and then zone ‘B’ also has it the next day, that is what we have been using for the past one week.”

Mr. Godfred Nimoh said he’s in the process of completing his report on the situation to the regional office to find a lasting solution to the challenge.

He urged the residents to remain calm and bear with the Agency by not abusing the free water policy.

“They should stay calm, we’re producing and as we zone now, everybody will get it but all we’re also saying is, don’t go there with barrels. Just make sure that if it is one pan or bowl, fetch it so that the other person too can also have his or her share,” he appealed.