The Central Regional Minister, Ekow Panyin Okyere Eduamoah, has revealed that about 10 districts in the region are facing a severe water crisis following the shutdown of the Kwanyako Headworks by the Ghana Water Limited.
The shutdown was necessitated after intake pumps at both treatment plants broke down due to heavy silt accumulation, a situation traced to illegal mining activities upstream of the river in the Eastern Region.
Addressing journalists after a meeting with the Local Government and Rural Development Committee of Parliament on September 16, the Minister said the affected assemblies have been directed to reactivate abandoned boreholes as an alternative source of water for residents.
“In fact,the system itself could not take the kind of raw material that they needed because of the high levels of contamination. And so that is the situation at the time wewent there. What we have decided to do, which is ongoing, is the fact that we quickly had theMMDCEs to identify existing boreholes, which had been abandoned because we had pipe-borne water.
In fact, for Gomoa Central, for instance, we had about 16 of them. Each of themwas functional, yet because we had water, they have been left. So, we asked them to reactivatethem and those who were faulty had to be repaired,” he stated.
“Boreholes are now supporting. There’s also a tanker system. The district assemblies are having tankers and we ordered them to, you know, supply communities,” he said.
Mr Eduamoah noted that “even where they should pay, it should be reasonable because there are institutions like hotels and other facilities that may want those services and that cannot actually go for free. But for the city, for the community members, I ask that if even they have to pay, it must not be something that will be unbearable.”
