The Ghana Water Company Limited says persons found guilty in the alleged illegal water connection at Mataheko near Afienya in the Greater Accra Region will be made to face the law.
Officials of the Company are partnering the Ghana Standards Authority and other agencies after the Sanitation and Water Resources Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah ordered fresh tests on water from a dugout in the area.
Estimated as the size of a football pitch, the dugout had been reportedly connected to the Water Company’s transmission lines since 2011.
The Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited, Ing. Clifford Braimah said his outfit will pursue the matter to its logical conclusion.
“We’re going to get in touch with Ghana Standard Authority and some of the water agencies to also equally come and do independent testing then we can put ourselves together. Once we can assure ourselves that it’s our water, then we’ll escalate it to the next level because that is a lot of water that he’s taken. That water could serve thousands of people. So this is a national security issue,” he said.
“The person is legally connected but he decided that he can use the water to do other things. If you’re not registered to be a commercial user, we’ll charge you for domestic usage. And we can’t charge you for domestic use then you’ll go use it for commercial purposes. It means that you have become a commercial entity without telling us so it is illegal. The suspicion also is that he might have done some bypass and that is why his meter is not reading enough. So in both ways, he is cheating the system.”
GWCL to shut down water plant at Odaso
The Ghana Water Company Limited in the Ashanti Region had earlier warned that its treatment plant at Odaso could soon be shut down if urgent measures are not taken to prevent illegal miners from polluting the Odaso River.
According to the Ashanti Regional Water Quality Assurance Manager, Alhaji Adam Yakubu, the state of the Odaso treatment plant keeps worsening by the day as a result of galamsey activities in the area.
He further added that the Owabi treatment plant is also being threatened as a result of the activities of private encroachers.
He believes designating the area as a security zone will help resolve the matter.