Communications Manager for Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) Stanley Martey has warned of imminent water crisis in the country if proactive steps are not taken to address illegal mining.

Speaking on Joy News’ The Pulse on Monday, January 17, Stanley Martey noted that the company is currently working on producing around 60% capacity of water; stressing that it is not enough for Ghana’s 31 million population.

He said although the water situation in the country is not worse, the country is likely to be in distress situation in terms of water if illegal mining activities are not resolved.

According to him, the Ghana Water Company Limited is managing the situation to ensure equitable distribution of water.

“The water situation currently in the country is not very bad except that if we do not work at rectifying the situation as it is now, we may fall into a crisis situation. But currently, we are treating water. We are working at producing around 60% capacity which is not enough for the population though but we are managing the situation and that is why we are doing the water demand management so that at least we can have a little water in the system so that the population can survive on the water that we have,” he said.

He added that “the little water in the system, our brothers who are involved in galamsey operations now operate their activities in earnest and so the little water is also almost destroyed.”

Mr. Martey explained that the current high turbidity of the water makes it difficult for enough water to be extracted and treated.

“When we extract the little water because of the high turbidity, we have had to lose about 30 – 40 percent of what we have extracted and so the 60% although not full capacity is also not enough for the population and that’s the challenge we find ourselves now,” he stated.