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| Ghana Marks World Water Day |
3/22/2007 |
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Official ceremonies have been held across Ghana on Thursday to commemorate World Water Day, however concerns have been raised across the country about the lack of access to potable water. The Day is marked globally every year to draw attention to critical issues relating to the conservation and development of fresh water bodies. This year’s is under the theme; Coping with water scarcity.
In Accra, residents in several suburbs say they face acute water shortage. At parts of Osu in the heart of the capital, residents say they have not had water flow through their pipes for the past two years. They spend between 30,000 to 60,000 cedis on water daily. Kuku Hill, a suburb of the Osu community is the worst hit. Residents there say they are fed up with the situation and are calling for an urgent solution.
In the Northern Region, residents are demanding a quick completion of the Tamale Water Project to ease the acute shortage. Joy News correspondent Mahama Shaibu says residents are threatening to descend on a fountain built to beautify the municipality if government does not act fast to deal with the water problem.
In the Central Regional capital, Cape Coast, residents say they haven''t had water in more than three months. The situation is said to seriously affect academic activities in the many educational institutions there while commercial users are spending substantial amounts of money to purchase water from distant sources. The Public Relations officer of Aqua Vitens, managers of Ghana Water Company, Stanley Mantey says the problem is one of demand outstripping supply but the company is hoping that projects it is rolling out, including the expansion of the Weija Water Works will help address the situation.
In the meantime the company is upgrading its 4-year-old water rationing programme to ensure that adequate quantities are stored for households to last the next supply dates. He explained that low pressures in their pipelines and the ongoing load shedding exercise makes it difficult for people living on hilly areas do not get supplies. He said Accra alone requires about 50 million gallons of water on a daily basis and this can only be met when the expansion work is completed.
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