Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has bemoaned the high cost of water treatment, particularly in the Western Region.
The company said it is spending extra thousands of Ghana cedis on the treatment of water for the people of Sekondi-Takoradi and its environs as a result of pollution of the River Pra.
The River Pra serves as a source of water for the Daboase Treatment Plant in the Wassa East District of the Western Region.
However, the company explained that the activities of illegal miners make the river highly adulterated. “We are going to do a bigger form of dredging with excavators which have longer booms and that the company [contractor] is charging us in excess of GH¢400,000 for the entire dredging exercise, which will last for about between six to 10 days,” said Nana Yaw Barima-Barnie, Communications Manager of Ghana Water Company, Western Regional Office.
“What the illegal miners do is that they agitate the bottom of the river and as it stir up, the silt flows along with the river and everything is accumulated at the intake and then we have a problem. When there is so much siltation, what happens is that the water is displaced by the silt or by the sand so instead of you getting water collected at the intake, you find silt or sand there,” he added.
He further explained that “another problem that we face with siltation is that while the pumps are abstracting water, they end up taking in sand and when they take in sand, they break down and we have to also spend money to repair them”.
Mr. Barima-Barnie told Journalists at the facility at Daboase that the quality of the water is so bad and deteriorated that the company needs to use a new chemical called polyelectrolyte.
The polyelectrolyte he described, is four times more expensive than aluminum sulphate. “Ghana Water Company is spending so much on water treatment chemicals because of pollution by illegal miners”.
He said the only solution to the challenge is to flush out galamsey operators (illegal miners) from the River Pra, one of the most polluted water bodies in Ghana.
“So, as long as greedy, avaricious individuals continue to work on the River Pra in order to get money, Ghana Water Company will continue to bear the brunt,” he added.
