Since the beginning of the month of February, residents of Cape Coast, Elmina and other immediate surrounding communities have been severely hit by acute water shortage, as water hardly run through their tabs.
For instance, communities in hilly areas such as Interberton New Site, Apewosika Kokwaado and the University of Cape Coast Community, all in the Cape Coast Metropolis have become the hardest hit areas.
The whole of Abura Town and its suburbs are adversely affected by the situation, as daily activities of residents are heavily challenged by the acute shortage of water in their homes.
This disturbing situation, which keeps moving from bad to worse, has made the residents feel not just distraught and disillusioned, but also stressful, as the means of getting water for daily activities is becoming difficult.
“Sometimes the water only comes late in the night, so if you need water then you don’t have to sleep, because it will come around 12 midnight or 3am, even then the pressure will be too low so it only drops”, Maame Ama Nkum, a resident of Apewosika said.
“We have heard that the water only flows in the night, but sincerely we have not experienced it at all, but it comes once in a while and that is very disturbing,” Efua Arhin of Abura Baawar added.
KEEA heavily affected
The condition of the acute water shortage and its impact in the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem Municipality is no different as several communities have been without water for some time now.
In the last few weeks, students of Edinaman Senior High School have been trekking several miles with their buckets in search of water from nearby hand dug wells.
Though there is no water rationing arrangements by the Ghana Water Company, many communities do not enjoy regular flow of water through their tabs.
For instance, residents of Brenu Akyinim, Ayensudo and other places do not have constant water flow as the running of water through their tabs have become intermittent.
Explanation by the Ghana Water Company
Meanwhile, the Ghana Water Company has blamed the situation on the wanton destruction of the Pra River through activities of indiscriminate illegal mining, commonly known as Galamsey and during the harmattan season.
According to the company, there were galamsey activities taking place close to the intake of the company’s Treatment Plant at Sekyere Hemang.
In a response to the situation, the company indicated in a release that the activities of the galamsey operators have led to heavy siltation at the raw water intake of the plant reduced the abstraction capacity and impacted production negatively.
The release, which was signed and issued by the company’s Western and Central Regions Communications Manager, Nana Yaw Barima Barniereads: “The illegal mining activities have also contributed to high turbidity of the raw water (suspended particles) from an average of 500 NTU to 7,000 NTU, causing the company to cut down its production by 30%, to ensure the quality of water produced is not compromised.
Again, the wanton destruction of the vegetation cover, close to the river banks, has led to substantial loss of the topsoil, which has all been washed into the river, thereby contributing to significant reduction of the river basin/catchment”.
Mr Banie also hinted that the dry season has led to dwindling water level in the Pra River, which has been the main source of raw water for the Sekyere Hemang Treatment Plant of the company.
The absence of rainfall, therefore, meant that there were no alternative sources of water for consumers, as everybody depended on potable water supplied from Ghana Water Ltd.
Effects of the current dumsor
Any form of erratic or unstable power supply has a far reaching ramification on the activities of the Ghana Water Company Ltd., since the company solely depends on power supply from the national grid for its operations.
In view of this development, the recent power outages, commonly known as “dumsor” has compounded the company’s numerous challenges, as its operations were halted whenever the power goes off.
The way forward
According to the company, a dredging contract has been signed with Messrs Motion Motive Enterprise to undertake extensive dredging at the intake of the plant.
A as curative measure, this would be expected to create adequate space which would allow enough water to flow into the intake, to increase abstraction and production.
Decision by management
Management of the company, according to the release, would be engaging all stakeholders of the Pra River to create awareness of the dire consequences of uncontrolled activities in the river body.
It also apologised to all customers in Cape Coast, Elmina and surrounding communities for the unfortunate situation and promised to work assiduously to normalise the situation.
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