By Elorm Yao Aryee
Residents of the Ho Municipality and parts of the Ho West and South Dayi districts of the Volta Region are grappling with water crisis with no end in sight.
There were frequent breakdowns in January this year, with the recent one lasting for about a week. The crisis that began late last year has gone from intermittent breakdown of pumps to complete shutdown.
The only pump, which was operational at the intake house at the Ghana Water Company Limited’s Kpeve head works in South Dayi District, has broken down beyond repairs.
It is one of three pumps at the facility that are obsolete after over 30 years since they were fixed. There are presently no functional pumps at the intake house to lift water from the Volta River to the treatment plant at the headworks at Kpeve for processing and distribution to the over hundred thousand residents in the affected areas.
The Volta Regional Minister, James Gunu, on his first day at the office, inspected the situation to find lasting solution to the water crisis. He gave the assurance that his office will supply water to institutions in critical need of water, such as hospitals and schools, daily and communities as a stopgap measure to salvage the situation until a permanent solution is executed to alleviate the crisis.
An old pump, which was brought in from Accra to replace the damaged one at Kpeve at the weekend, did not achieve the purpose.
The Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Mutawakilu Adam, who accompanied the Regional Minister, gave the assurance that his office will find a permanent solution to the crisis in due course.
The GWCL has ordered new pumps from abroad, which are scheduled to arrive in March this year to be used to replace the old ones.
Mr Adam, however, indicated that two old pumps will be brought in within this week and hoped that they fit into the spots of the broken pumps to mitigate the perennial water crisis in the Volta Region and parts of the Ho West and South Dayi Districts.
The Volta Regional Minister, James Gunu, was in the company of chiefs of Asogli and Kpeve during the inspection at the GWCL head works.
During his recent ‘Thank You Tour” of the Volta Region, President John Mahama gave the assurance that government will expand the Kpeve headworks of the Ghana Water Company Limited to increase its water supply to many parts of the region.
Before the recent breakdown, the facility produced 11 thousand cubic liters daily for residents in affected communities.
Experts, however, say the supply of 30 thousand cubic liters of water is required to meet the demand of the growing population in the affected areas.
