Reports reaching Joy News indicate that mangers of the Teshie-Nungua Desalination Plant have given the Ghana Water Company Limited by the end of this month to clear debts owed the company or risk shutting down the plant.

The Public Utility Workers Union had pegged the debt owed by the water company at more than 43 million cedis as at the end of August this year.

Deputy General Secretary of the union Michael Nyantakyi says the contractual agreement allows contractors of the desalination plant to shut down if GWCL is unable to settle its debt.

“It is a very unfortunate situation but looking at the contract nature of the agreement it will be in their legal right to do that.

“The unfortunate part of this agreement is that whether or not the plant is working, GWCL will still have to pay according to the nature of the agreement. It is a very water tight agreement which favours the private operator than the GWCL”, he said.

He said if indeed the operators stick to their words and shut down, “it will be very difficult for anyone to raise serious legal challenge against them because the contract will be on their side”.

Communications Director at the GWCL, Stanley Martey confirmed that the company owes operators of the plant.

He said “it could be possible we owe them some money but we have been engaging them regularly on how to settle those bills except that it has been slow.

“But we are engaging them, government is doing same to see how best the situation can be solved”, he said.

He said it was wrong for the operators to issue threats of shutting down when negotiations are still ongoing.

He indicated that the company has been unable to settle its debts especially due to the high cost of production and the rather low tariffs charged.

Mr Martey however said the GWCL has called for an increase in tariffs to cushion the company.