The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has inaugurated a new water laboratory as part of efforts to ensure that quality water is supplied to consumers.
The PURC, which is the regulator of both electricity and water utilities, said the new facility will enable it to deliver on its mandate of ensuring quality service, protection of the consumer and promotion of efficiency in the utilities space.
The laboratory, located in Accra, will help to ascertain complaints from consumers of Ghana Water Company over the quality of water supplied to them. Before the inauguration of the new facility, the Commission had relied on other partners to test water quality anytime consumers complain of the quality of water from the Ghana Water Company.
Its Executive Secretary, Ishmael Ackah, speaking at a ceremony to formally inaugurate the facility, emphasised the important role it will play in promoting quality service delivery to consumers.
“We regulate both water and electricity, but the thing about electricity is that it has derived demand – we don’t buy electricity and consume, we buy it for the services it provides like light. For water, we buy and consume and when you take it into your system it is very difficult to get it out, so what we have done is to invest in this lab to test the water we consume, to identify challenges and proffer solutions.
“The second is that we often receive complaints from consumers. These complaints border on availability and quality of water such as coloured water – the turbidity of the water. When these complaints come, we normally contact external laboratories to do the test for us before we can get back to the consumer and this normally takes time. So another reason for establishing the laboratory is to be very responsive to customers’ complaints. We will now be able to use our own lab to test for water quality based on standards provided by the Ghana Standards Authority,” he said.
For his part, Emmanuel Fiati, Manager, Water Services at PURC, said the in-house laboratory will enable the PURC to assess the quality of pipeline water supplied to consumers firsthand, saving both time and money.
He added that: “In the past when we did not have our own lab, if a consumer complains about an issue, we have to take the water to a third-party lab to test and this normally takes some time. But now that we have established our own, it is going to speed resolution of complaints because we can go to the individual’s home and take the sample and analyze. The main goal is to guarantee the quality of water supplied to consumers”.
The Commission has a similar facility for the power sector.
