The Manager of Corporate Planning Monitoring and Evaluation at Ghana Water Company Limited, Seth Eric Atiapah, has justified the reasons why it has proposed upward adjustment in tariffs.
In a presentation, he explained that debt incurred from the operation of the Desalination plant is one of the reasons why it is requesting a 300 percent increment in water tariffs.
He further listed the impact of water pollution as a result of illegal mining and sand winning as another factor for the proposed adjustment.
“It has caused a lot of cost to the utility. We have to use sometimes, two times more, chemicals to get the same volume of water.”
“You have to dredge and it is so much cost to us. The sad thing is even when you extract the water to treat, you may have to use about 40 per cent to just backwash and throw it away again,” Mr. Atipah said.
Aside from these reasons, the GWCL says the average tariff per cubic metre in 2019 was 1.27 USD, and the same was reduced to USD 1.13 as a result of cedi depreciation.
This the GWCL noted has affected its ability to carry out repairs and replacements of aged and obsolete equipment and pipelines.
It added that the current domestic tariff of GHS3.29 per cubic metre to consumers within 0-5 cubic metres is less than what the poor in rural areas pay, which is about GHS10.
The GWCL is currently saddled with a monthly loan payment of $7.93 million which is 47.15 percent of its average monthly revenue.
As part of efforts to recover the loans through tariffs, it has proposed an upward adjustment of 343 percent increase in tariffs whereas ECG is demanding 148 percent.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
