The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has lamented the huge sums of money it loses in the sale of treated water to Ghanaians.<\/p>\n
According to the Head of Communication at the GWCL, Stanley Martey the company which operates 88 plants across the nation spends GH\u00a28 on every cubic metre of water processed but sells to the public for only GH\u00a21.78.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”S4C7Rwr6PN3xXEi4sTjyVeBw1QzqGrpB”]He noted that the company produces over a million cubic metre of water on a daily basis, lamenting that the company is running at a loss.<\/p>\n
He said the company is unable to undertake maintenance on its facilities due to lack of funds while calling for tariff adjustments to rectify the challenge.<\/p>\n
The Head of Communication at the GWCL speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong> explained that \u201cthe cost of production in all of our plants averagely is 8 cedis per cubic metre and the approved tariff is GH\u00a21.78. How do we run a company like this? For every cubic metre of water that we sell, we lose over 6 cedis and we produce close to a million of cubic metre of water daily throughout the country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody does business with the idea that I just want to serve the general public so I produce higher and just sell at any cost just because the people cannot afford or just because of other reasons. Everybody wants to make profit.\u201d<\/p>\n He lamented that, because the PURC regulates their activities it is difficult to make any demand from the public outside the confines of the law.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201c…But if at certain times we realize that we need more we put all our documents together, submit it to PURC and then they do what is expected of them,\u201d Mr. Martey added.<\/p>\n He stated\u00a0that \u201cin times past, we\u2019ve always had lower tariffs and its affecting the Ghana Water Company Limited. Meanwhile, the people of Ghana desire and deserve better services.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0Mr. Martey explained that the only way the trend could be reverted \u201cis to invest in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo invest into the system, we need to build new treatment plants, extend our pipelines, change old pipelines and rehabilitate our pumps. All these things are coming at a cost. \u00a0We do not have the money to do it, even if we want to go for a loan to do some of these things; we have to go with a good balance sheet. If our balance sheet is not good for any bank to feel comfortable to give us a loan, how do we get the facility to invest into the system. So the only way is to pay realistically so that we can invest into the system,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Utility providers in the country including the GWCL are advocating for over a hundred percent increment<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in tariff prices.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n