[ 2016-01-28 ]

Stanley Martey GWCL

90% of sachet water just raw tap water – GWCL
The Head of Communication at the Ghana Water
Company Limited (GWCL), Stanley Martey, has
alleged that more than 90 percent of sachet water
on the market is just raw tap water repackaged by
various sachet water producers.

This is contrary to suggestions that the sachet
water is properly treated and therefore better
than the raw resource directly supplied by the
Ghana Water Company.

He made the comment while responding to a
demographic and Health Survey report by the Ghana
Health Service and the Ghana Statistical Service
that revealed that 29% of Ghanaians rely on sachet
water.

“More than 90 percent of sachet water producers
use water from the Ghana Water Company as their
raw material for the production of sachet
water..It is all from Ghana Water Company and not
any industry trying to treat its water.

“They rather devalue the water because if you
look at the conditions under which some of these
sachet water producers produce their water, it is
rather pathetic. The conditions under which they
work is terrible and even with the reputable
companies, all they do is to filter. It is just a
matter of packaging but it doesn’t mean they add
any value to the water they are producing,” Mr.
Martey insisted.

The report revealed that 43 % of urban dwellers
and 11 .8 % of rural dwellers respectively rely on
sachet water while 23 % of Ghanaians resort to
public tap or stand pipe for water.

“The most notable change in access to drinking
water sources between 2008 and 2014 is the
increase in the proportion of households using
sachet water from 8% to 29% in the past six
years,” the report said.

It also said: “the proportion of households that
use drinking water from public taps/ stand pipe or
tube well/ borehole has decreased from 57 % in the
2008 GDHS to 44% in the 2014 GDHS, most likely due
to switching to sachet water in the latter
survey.”

But Mr. Martey insisted “Ghanaians use sachet
water not as a preference or not because it is
better than the treated water from the Ghana Water
Company but because it is available.”

Sachet water producers disagree

Meanwhile the President of the National
Association of Sachet and Packaged Water
Producers, Magnus Nunoo has dismissed assertions
that sachet water companies only repackage water
from GWCL without treatment.

Mr. Nunoo told Citi Breakfast Show host, Bernard
Avle that most of the sachet water companies use
water from GWCL as their primary source but submit
it for further treatment.

‘We test the raw water we use at the labs to
determine the contaminants and then deal
specifically with them.”

He further revealed that the products and
facilities of sachet water companies are subjected
to checks from the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).

Source - citifmonline

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