The CEO of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) has disclosed that huge electricity bills have been accumulated by community water teams.

Giving an update on the sector on Sunday, Dr. Kwadjo Siabi said over GH¢40 million in electricity bills have not been paid.

He said this was noticed after his agency conducted a study on the challenges of the community water systems in Ghana.

“We have also noticed from the studies we did that there is huge accumulated electricity bills. The initial studies we did was that a number of the water systems when we put all the outstanding bills we had with either ECG or VRA, we had over GH¢40m.

According to him, the other challenges that were identified includes; a frequent breakdown of community water systems as well as an unaccounted revenue of about 50% for water.

Dr. Siabi added that the studies indicated that water quality in Ghana is a problem.

He explained that about 95% of water sources in the country is obtained from groundwater.

“All the data that we have, suggests that about 30% of the ground water that have high levels of iron, manganese, fluorides, arsenic and hardness and all of these have health challenges.”

Other issues he stated are; misapplication of funds within communities, inadequate supervision by assemblies, technical and managerial capacity at community level, inadequate financing for post construction activities to guarantee regular follow ups etc.