Sekondi-Takoradi water rationing persists due to low level of Pra River – GWCL

• Posted on March 20, 2023March 20, 2023
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Western Regional Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Ghana Water Company, Mr Nana Yaw Banieh says water rationing in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis persists due to the low level of the Pra River.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Daboase treatment plant on Friday, March 17, Mr Banieh indicated that the minimum demand for Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis is 15 million gallons of water a day, however, due to the low level of the river, as a result of some challenges, they are not able to get adequate quantity of water to meet the demand.

He said, “The level of the water is still very low, and because of that we are not able to abstract enough quantity for our customers.”

“Prior to now, we had just a trench of about 1.5 metres width that the river was going through and the situation we are having now is that the plant is not able to abstract an adequate amount of water to meet the demand of 15 million gallons for Sekondi-Takoradi.”

He said the company has started building a new treatment plant which is expected to produce 22 million gallons of water a day and is projected to be completed in 2025.

“The other option is to build a new treatment plant which we have already started the process with the help of the government, if all things go well, by the end of 2025 we will have a new treatment plant that will be producing 22 million gallons of water a day to meet the demands of 2040.”

Mr Banieh added that the Pra River is silted to the extent that the Ghana Water Company will have to spend thousands of Ghana cedis to dredge the intake area due to galamsey activities.

He indicated that the solution will be to flush out these galamsey operators

“The river is so much silted that the Ghana Water Company has to spend thousands of Ghana cedis for dredging. We are going to do a bigger form of dredging where we are being charged an amount of GHs400,000 for that work and this is as a result of galamsey activities.”

“Another problem is that whiles the pumps are abstracting water, they end up taking in the sand which in the end, the Ghana Water Company needs to spend thousands of Ghana cedis to repair and maintain them.”

“The only solution to this problem is to flush out these greedy galamsey operators who don’t have any regard for human lives and our water bodies.”

-Skyy Power