Pantang Area Water Scheme appeals for bulk supply
The Pantang Area Water and Sanitation Scheme in the Ga East Municipal Assembly in the Greater Accra Region has called on the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to supply it with bulk water to enable it meet the demands of its coverage area.
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This has become necessary as settlements spread within the area, making it difficult to adequately provide potable water to the target population.
“For us to be able to serve our people adequately, we are liaising with the assembly to talk to the GWCL to give us bulk water so that we can distribute and pay outright,” the Board Chairman of the scheme, Mr Benjamin Banitsi, told the Daily Graphic.
He was speaking at a public hearing to account to the people on the activities of the scheme in the area at Abokobi.
The annual public hearing created the platform for the scheme to educate the people on their rights and responsibility as well as the activities of the scheme over the year.
Increasing population
Mr Banitsi said because of the increasing population of the area, the demand for water had outstripped supply, “and that is why we are liaising with the GWCL to complement what we are doing here.”
He said from January 2014 to December 2015, the scheme connected water to 202 houses to bring the total connections to 1,468.
Irregular power supply
Mr Banitsi explained that irregular power supply from the national grid had led to high cost of operation as the scheme was compelled to buy diesel to power its generator to pump water.
Giving statistics, he said during the year under review, the scheme spent GH¢47,892.00 on diesel alone to be able to pump water continuously.
That, he said, was aside the GH¢97,725 spent on electricity bill from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Pressure on generator
Mr Banitsi explained that, the only generator used by the scheme suffered frequent break downs.
He thanked the people in the area for their patience and assured that the scheme was committed to providing potable water to them.
Clean environment
Mr Banitsi said, the scheme was not only concentrating on the provision of potable water, but was also working on providing a clean environment by encouraging the people to be interested in cleaning their environment.
He said the scheme had distributed free litter bins to households and arranged with Zoomlion to empty them once a week for them to pay GH¢20 per bin at the end of every month.
Major challenges
The System Manager of the scheme, Mr Jerry Yao Ayimah, who presented the annual report at the forum, said one major challenge to the provision of potable water apart from the high cost of electricity was damage to pipelines by estate developers.
He said the only way out of the situation was to relocate pipelines from private plots to avoid interruption of water supply as a result of the damages.
Mr Ayimah also proposed the need to replace the current generator since it had been working for the past 10 years.