Sachet water vendors and consumers are complaining about the ¢0.10 to ¢0.20 increase in the product's price in the Ashanti region.

According to them, the new price affects the sale of sachet water in the metropolis.

Below is Luv FM's Anita Serwaa Adzoga's report when she visited the Kumasi market.

Nhyira Maame, a sachet water retailer, mops her storefront ready for the day's sale. Her regular customers, who are sachet water vendors, usually come to the shop in the morning to buy bags of sachet water to sell.

But that has changed. The vendors return sachet water after failing to sell water bought from her shop. This, according to her, is crippling her business.

"Selling sachet water at ¢0.40 is difficult. I'm unable to make enough profits due to low patronage," she said.

In the fight against the scorching sun, sachet water is the last hope for the commoner, but Nhyira Maame believes that is not the case anymore.

The retailer wants pure water to be produced in volumes to make it affordable for Ghanaians.

"In other countries, sachet water is produced in volumes. Therefore, producers need to adopt that strategy to make sachet water affordable for Ghanaians," she advised.

Another retailer also laments how she has lost customers to the increase in price.

"I have six regular customers who always purchase and sell sachet water, but since prices were increased, four of them have stopped the sachet water business,'' she lamented.

When sachet water was sold at ¢0.20 pesewas, most sachet water vendors were able to sell 10 to 12 bags of sachet water in a day.

Now they walk under the sun with their basins filled with sachet water, only to sell two to three water bags due to the price increase.

"Patronage of sachet water has reduced due to the new price. So now we're unable to sell five bags of water," Aunty Akua, a sachet water vendor, noted.

"Because the patronage is slow, we've reduced the price to ¢0.30 instead of ¢0.40 to enable patronage, but that hasn't changed anything," another vendor said. 

Sachet water consumers also want prices reduced.

"I have reduced the intake of water due to the new price. I can't buy three sachets of water with ¢1," Musah, a driver, said.

Samira, a mother of two, said, "Not everyone can afford to buy the water, especially school children".

Raw materials such as plastic film roll and packaging bags for sachet water and high fuel prices are some of the reasons given by sachet water producers for the increase in prices of the commodity.

Najib Dawuda Justice is the manager of Tofa filtered drinking water.

"The sachet water rubber has been increased from ¢16 per kilo but it's sold at ¢18 while the packaging bags for sachet water was ¢230 but it's now ¢260. So definitely we had to increase the price of a bag of sachet water", he noted

The producers say if the cost of raw materials keeps increasing, it's most likely the price of sachet water will be increased in subsequent months.