ADVERTISER’S STATEMENT - AVRL EXPLAINS RECENT ACUTE WATER SHORTAGE

Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd., acting for and on behalf of the Ghana Water Company Ltd., wishes to update its customers about the recent acute water shortage which occurred in the Accra-Tema Metropolitan Area (ATMA).

First, average water supply in ATMA is about 82 million gallons per day from Weija and Kpong Treatment Plants. In contrast, demand is over 150 million gallons per day, which leaves a deficit of nearly 70 million gallons per day, even in the best of times.

Second, during the dry season the situation worsens because in the absence of rain-water as an alternative, demand for treated water peaks and puts extra pressure on an already poor situation.

Third, on February 26, the Kpong transmission line was shut down for 18 hours for maintenance and repair of a serious leakage. The same day, Weija shut down for 2.5 hours due to power interruption.

On February 27, Kpong suffered low voltage, electricity supply to Weija was interrupted for an hour, in addition to a major pipe burst on Independence Avenue.

On February 29, there was 2 hour power interruption to Kpong, and another to Weija on March 1 for an hour. (AVRL puts out radio announcements ahead of anticipated interruptions.)

When there’s a mere five-minute power-cut, it takes at least five hours to restore water flow. Therefore the impact of these occurrences on water supply is enormous. 

Co-operation with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is excellent. However, ECG is also grappling with aged facilities similar to what AVRL and GWCL are working with. Therefore, these outages and interruptions can occur again until there is major rehabilitation works on, replacement or long-term expansion of treatment plants.

The alternative is to install independent power plants as back-up. That will increase cost to be borne through tariff increases or underwriting by government.

It is important to emphasise that AVRL’S mandate does not include plant expansion. The company is restricted primarily to efficiently operating the existing infrastructure for urban water services, maintenance of water quality, billing and collection. The company enjoys a close and symbiotic working relationship with GWCL which has the legal mandate of system expansion, because the success of one relies on the other, and the satisfaction of customers depends on both.

Currently, AVRL is developing a short-term measure to provide a mobile water delivery service to specific, hard-hit neighbourhoods.

Finally, AVRL sincerely apologises to all its customers for the inconvenience they have experienced lately. The company believes, however, that with the above explanation, you will appreciate the objective challenges and needs of this critical sector. 

Signed: Andrew Barber,

MD, Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd.,

Last changed: Mar 13 2008 at 1:56 PM