PURC receives report on GWCL fact finding committee

The Fact Finding Committee established to conduct a technical and operational investigation on the operations of the Ghana Water Company Limited and Ghana Urban Water Limited on Tuesday presented its draft report to the Commission.

The committee, instituted by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), was to determine the root causes of operational problems at the water supply facilities in Accra-Tema, Sekondi-Takoradi, Kumasi and Dalun, and review servicing and maintenance procedures to identify any operational problems.

It is also to recommend steps to prevent and help minimize future occurrence of similar incidents.

Presenting the findings of the report, Mr Jonathan Nunoo, a former Managing Director of Water Company and Chairman of the Committee, said efforts should be made to prevent the encroachment of the Weija dam sites and other water production areas.

He said there was the need to upgrade security at all stations, demolish unauthorized structures at strategic locations around the installations and to remove the fishermen from the Weija intake.

Mr Nunoo said these steps were important to prevent the pollution of the Weija water body, which has deteriorated because of the settlement around the Densu River, making the cost of water treatment exorbitant.

Mrs Peace Ocansey-Colerangle, former Director (Water Quality) GWCL, said key equipment to ensure that the quality of water met international standards are lacking.

“Weija needs help when it comes to quality assurance,” she said, adding that the monitoring laboratory equally left much to be desired.

The Committee called for the replacement of the faulty Alum and Lime dosing facilities with adequate standby facilities to ensure the efficiency of chemical water treatment at Weija as the result of the poor raw water quality.

There is also the need to provide production metres at all stations to enable preliminary measurement to be done while fault reporting structures and supervision must be improved and major problems must be reported in a timely manner to the relevant authorities with copies to the regulator for timely intervention.

Mr Samuel Sarpong, Executive Secretary PURC, said the report would strengthen the Commission’s monitoring activities to ensure that issues in the report were dealt with.

He said the Commission had also requested the GWCL/GUWL to furnish it with a plan on how to deal with the issues, especially in establishing an early warning system to address pertinent concerns and help reduce the impact on consumers.