RESIDENTS OF the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis who have, in the past three
weeks, been wandering with their gallons, buckets, rubber bowls and other
containers in search of water as a result of the acute water shortage that
has hit the area, are fuming with rage and describing the Atta Mills-led
National Democratic Congress (NDC) government as insensitive to the plight
of the ordinary Ghanaian.

According to the aggrieved residents, the metropolitan authorities as well
as government seemed not to bother about the difficulties they go through
each day to get a bucket of water.

They explained that even though the city’s authorities were aware of the
water problem, neither the Ghana Water Company (GWC) nor the leadership of
the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) had come out publicly to
give any explanation regarding the cause of the problem and when it would
be rectified.

A visit by DAILY GUIDE to some communities within the metropolis revealed
that residents wake up as early as 3.00 am and walk long distances with
their receptacles in search of water.

Some of the communities the paper visited within the metropolis were
Kwesimintsim, Tanokrom, Bankyease, Effiakuma, Apremdo, Amanful, Railway
Quarters, Top Ten and the Takoradi Harbour Area where people had formed
long queues with ‘Kufuor’ gallons in front of some stand-pipes, waiting for
the water to flow.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that while some people got a bucket of water after a
long struggle, others went home empty-handed, while most of the wells had
gone dry.

“My brother, we are buying a bucket of dirty well water for GHp10, but that
one is also in short supply, rendering many household dirty because water
has no substitute,” a 50-year-old housewife remarked.

In an interview with DAILY GUIDE, a woman resident at Kwesimintsim wondered
why the NDC government had come with a lot of bad omens including fire
outbreaks, high cost of living, high rents, lorry fares and unbearable
utility bills.

According to her, since the current NDC government took over, there was no
single day the people said they were enjoying good standards of living as
compared to the previous regime.

“If it is not gas shortage, it will be gasoline, kerosene or pre-mix fuel
and now there is acute water shortage all over the metropolis, making life
unbearable for all of us. Our children are going to school late and our
husbands are also late for work everyday because they don’t get water early
to bath,” she stressed.

A young man at Takoradi Amanful, who mentioned his name only as Oluman,
blatantly castigated the Atta Mills-led NDC government.

When this reporter informed Oluman that it was the responsibility of the
GWC to make sure that water flows to the various homes, he maintained that
since the government controlled the GWC, all the blame should be laid on
the door step of the government.

Mark Teiko Codjoe, Production Manager of GWC, attributed the acute water
shortage in the Twin-City to the fact that the Pra River at Daboase and the
Anankwa River at Inchaban, which served as the sources of raw water supply
in the metropolis, were drying up.

He said as a result, the GWC treatment plants at Daboase and Inchaban could
no longer supply the stipulated quantity of water to consumers in the
metropolis.

Mr. Codjoe, who conducted newsmen round the treatment plant and reservoirs
at Daboase and Inchaban, said the Daboase Headworks which supplied about
six million gallons of water from the Pra River to residents of Takoradi,
now supplies four million gallons.

He intimated that the Inchaban Headworks, which supplied four million
gallons of water everyday from the Anankwa River, now supplies only 500,000
gallons, adding that the situation had compelled the GWC to ration water in
the metropolis.

On his part, Francis Agyei-Boateng, Western Regional Distribution Manager
of GWC, said the problem would be resolved when the rains set in.