Tema Manhean residents cry for potable water
Some assembly members at Tema Manhean in the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) have bemoaned the inadequate supply of potable water in their communities.
Contributing to discussions at the first ordinary meeting of the First Session of the Eighth General Assembly Meeting of the TMA, some of the assembly members said for the past eight to nine months, they had not had regular flow of water through their taps.
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They said urgent steps needed to be taken to regularly provide potable water for people in their communities.
The Assembly Member for Bankuman, Mr Alfred Borkor, lamented the unavailability of potable water in the northern part of his electoral area for the past eight months, saying he had to provide huge storage tanks and buy water from tankers to serve his community on a regular basis.
He said there was the need for intervention from the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL).
The Assembly Member for the Homowo Electoral Area, Mr Enoch Afutu, called on the GWCL to assist the residents in his electoral area, stressing that many residents in the area had for the past nine months not seen water following through their taps.
Concerns
The Presiding Member of the TMA, Mr Joseph Korto, indicated that in the various community engagements held with the people of Tema Manhean by the assembly, one of the recurring concerns was inadequate water supply and called on the management of the GWCL to ameliorate the sufferings of people living in the community by ensuring constant flow of water.
The acting Distribution Manager of the GWCL in Tema, Alhaji Alhassan Baba, said although the company was doing its best to enhance the provision of water to residents, demand had outstripped supply.
According to him, initially the Tema booster station, which received supply from the Kpong Headworks, was designed to serve the Tema Harbour, however, over the years, the population of Tema and industries had grown and outstripped supply.
He explained that the increasing population without a commensurate investment in water treatment and distribution had resulted in a shortfall in supply.
He said under such a condition, the only way out would be to ration water for residents and industries in Tema.
Maintenance
The Communication Manager of the GWCL, Mr Sampson Ampa, informed the assembly members that the company in a bid to enhance water supply had interrupted water supply from Thursday, April 22, 2021 to Sunday April 25, 2021, within Tema and parts of Accra.
He explained that the interruption was to pave the way for the replacement of parts of the 42-inch diameter transmission pipeline from the Kpong Treatment Plant which was laid over 50 years ago and had experienced leakages due to excessive corrosion.
He was optimistic that the maintenance works when completed would significantly improve water distribution in Tema and its environs.
Mr Ampa bemoaned encroachment on the Kpong to Tema transmission line and appealed to the various assemblies along the transmission line to help curb the menace.
Water stress
The Member of Parliament for Tema East, Mr Isaac Ashai Odamtten, said the regular shortage of water supply to residents could cause water stress and urged the GWCL and assembly members to find innovative ways to improve on the situation.
He recommended the construction of bigger water reservoirs in the various communities to enable inhabitants access water.
Interventions
A member of the Council of State representing the Greater Accra Region, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, said during the tenure of former President John Evans Atta Mills, the government secured US$274 million to expand the Kpong Headworks to serve communities in Tema, Accra and beyond, adding that since the population had outstripped supply, the work carried out was unable to meet demand.
He called on assembly members to monitor developments in their communities to ensure that people did not encroach on water transmission lines, which would result in the destruction of the pipelines.
Mr Mensah backed calls by the Metropolitan Chief Executive for Tema, Mr Felix Mensah Nii Anang-La, to carry out a demolition exercise to clear the various communities of illegal structures including containers, kiosks and small table top shops, stressing that the assembly should apply the relevant laws to rid the city of such structures.
“The law is clear. You demolish and surcharge offenders with the cost of demolition," he said.
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