Ghana Water Company must cut losses – Afenyo-Markin

The Board of Directors of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) called on the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Ms Cecilia Dapaah, last Tuesday and discussed with her ways of improving the quality of drinking water across the country.

The Board also talked of strengthening the working relations between the GWCL and the ministry.

The meeting also deliberated on identifying the means to improve the company’s revenue generation function.

The Chairman of the GWCL Board, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, in his remarks, suggested that the way forward for the GWCL was for it to undertake systemic changes in the way it operated to enable it to account better for the sale of water it produced.

“The Ghana Water Company does not have a problem with the competence of its human resource.

What is needed to make it succeed further is reform. Reforms are often resisted because they are not pleasing, and so we seek your assistance to proceed in that direction.

“There should be no excuse for us to produce and not be able to account properly after selling.

It’s because the losses are just too many and without reforming the system the situation is bound to continue,” he said.

GWCL workers urged

He further expressed his concern over the practice where people stole water the company produced, saying that “residents of Ashaiman and Nima, including some surrounding areas were using water openly without paying for it”.

The minister also raised issues regarding alleged cases of stealing of parts at water treatment plants across the country.”

He sent an appeal to workers of the company to cooperate with the management to prevent such losses from occurring.

Mr Afenyo-Markin urged the GWCL workers to work harder to enable the company to improve its revenue target which stood at an average GH¢55 million per annum, adding that “with maximum cooperation from all, we will be able to achieve GH¢150 million, if workers will accept reforms”.

He also spoke against the formation of groups within the company and urged the company’s management to disallow such groupings as they could interfere with the smooth running of the company.



Improved water delivery

For her part, the minister of sanitation and water resources said the meeting between the GWCL Board and the ministry was long overdue and expressed her readiness to lend her support to efforts to improve the

She underscored the importance of water as a necessity to life and noted that water produced in the country was of high quality and one of the best globally.

‘‘I must put it on record that the GWCL produces one of the best high quality water you can find in the world, conforming to standards established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) but for tampering and introduction of pathogens into the water, we wouldn’t have had any problem at all and there would have been no need to buy bottled water.

“All said, it is important that we fulfil the President’s vision of water for all without exception which is why any projects that the ministry undertakes, we take into consideration the growth of the population and the fact that we must serve the public with good drinking water,” she said.