Residents of Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis and Effia-Kwesimintsim municipality in the Western Region will have to brace themselves for further extension of the ongoing water rationing; since the Ghana Water Company (GWCL) is still unable to meet the required demand.

Although the inadequate water supplied to the treatment plants at Inchaban, for further distribution has been largely blamed on the dry season, activities of illegal miners on some water bodies in the region have worsened the situation over the years.

Averagely, the company produces about 4.5 million gallons of water a day during peak seasons but is now producing as low as 2.3 million gallons per day.

“The levels [of water bodies] are low, so it is also causing rotation around the intake, so it becomes difficult for us to abstract enough water. But if they [galamsey operators] stop, we can now dredge the intake area and we can have some water as well,” GWCL’s Communications Manager, Stanley Martey, said in an interview on Joy FM’s Top story. 

But to improve production, however, the Company says it has begun dredging raw water from an intake point at Daboase for treatment and onward distribution.

The Western Regional Production Manager, Ing Vincent Opoku Ware Donkor tells JoyNews, they are optimistic of an increase in production once the exercise is completed.

“If you look at the situation now, the weather itself is having an effect on the volume of water that we can draw. We are currently in a dry season and with it, there is a lot of evaporation because the weather is really dry.

“The river expands to about three regions, that is the Pra, it goes through Ashanti region from Brong Ahafo through to Central then through Western to the sea. So we are the last point of the river so activities that happen upstream definitely affect us.

“Hopefully by the close of the week, the dredging would have been completed. We have done about 45% of the dredging.

“We are hoping by Friday we should be through with it and we will have enough water to produce so the water situation in town will also improve,” he said.