The Ghana Water Company Limited has attributed the shortage of water in the country to the dry season and galamsey activities.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Stanley Martey, Public Relations Officer of the company noted that his outfit anticipated these challenges.
“We put out a press release in January indicating that due to the dry season there will be a high demand for water. And especially in areas where there’s galamsey is predominant, we are going to face more challenges.”
“This was manifested a few days after when we realized that in the Western Region, galamsey operations were up again and it was affecting the volumes of water we are to extract for treatment,” he added.
According to Mr. Martey, there has also been a shortage in the production of water to meet the increasing demand of the people.
“We also realized there was a fall in production, so in February, we were recording two million to four million gallons of water as against the capacity of eleven million gallons of water. As a result, we have had to rush water through Sekondi/Takoradi and we have announced to them and so they are aware of the situation.”
He further noted that the increasing number of Coronavirus cases in Ghana has also heightened the demand for water.
He advised that the public should use the water in ways that can help them save some for future purposes.
“However, it is not only due to galamsey and the dry season. Now with Coronavirus, more people are resorting to treated water for the washing of hands and washing down regularly as we have been advised… So we all have to manage the situation. Therefore, we also advise the general public on the use of water”.