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The inability of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to supply
adequate water is due to consumers’ failure to pay their water bills;
this is according to Communications Manager of the GWCL Stanley
Martey.
Mr Martey said he finds it unbelievable that people are willing to
spend money on beer and other things rather than paying their bills,
when the price of a bottle of beer costs more than what they will pay
for a 1000 litres of water.
“People fail to pay their water bills, no matter how small it is, they
fail to do so but the sad aspect is that they find it easier to buy
credit or beer and other stuff which is more expensive than water.”
A family of four will only require 10,000 litres of water per week and
that should cost less than Ȼ30.00, “why should this be difficult for
us, if you sit with your friends to drink beer you consume more than
Ȼ30.00 at a sitting”.
Why should people refuse to pay their bills if water is not expensive?
he quizzed. We are not being fair when we do not pay our water bills.
He conceded that although the GWCL has not done exceptionally well in
the collection of water bills, it is doing its best to ensure that
consumers do not have to struggle to pay their bills.
This, he says, has been made possible through the provision of payment
points in various communities and the use of mobile money payment
systems to encourage consumers to pay their bills.
He also noted that consumers can make payments in various major banks
across the country.
Our payment system is postpaid so after consuming the water it should
not be difficult to pay for it, he said.
As the world celebrates World Water Day Sunday, Mr Martey said
Government is doing all it can to ensure that potable water is made
available to people across the country.
Places like Teshie-Nungua, Madina and Adenta, who hitherto struggled
to access clean water have all been provided with water through the
Kpong expansion rehabilitation and expansion project which was
commissioned by the President last year, he indicated.
He was hopeful that with the many projects which are being undertaken
by the GWCL, water rationing should be a thing of the past, making it
easy for people to access clean water.
Water.Org estimates that approximately 750million people around the
world lack access to clean water and more than half of that
(385million) are from Africa.
Statistics again provided by Water.Org indicate that in Ghana
approximately 7million rural folks/communities do not have access to
potable water while 2.5 million people in urban communities also lack
good, clean drinking water.
WaterAid reports that over 3,000 children under five years old die
annually from poor water and sanitation in Ghana.
Credit: Myjoyonline.com
