Sachet water producers need our assistance
Sachet and bottled water has become an integral part of our society and is very difficult to dispense with. From the days when water was sold in buckets served with cups to water sold in plastic bags, the drinking water industry has grown to be a very vibrant enterprise.
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Although empty water sachets and plastic bottles have become the nemesis of our environment because of our poor sanitation habits, it is an open secret that if sachet water, fondly referred to as ‘pure’ water, were to be taken away, a lot of people would suffer.
Sachet water has become the preferred and obvious choice of drinking water for many households in the country, in spite of the availability of tap water, because many trust the ‘wholesomeness’ of sachet water more than treated water from the taps.
That is not to say that all brands of sachet water are absolutely wholesome. Just as there are bad elements in every endeavour, so do we have those who do not produce sachet water under hygienic conditions.
Apart from the convenient provision of water, even for rural folks whose streams dry out during the dry season and those who are not served with conventional water sources such as the borehole or Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) pipelines, the drinking water industry also provides employment in both the urban and rural areas to a lot of people, both in production and distribution.
It is for this reason that we are asking the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) and the utility companies such as the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the GWCL to pay particular attention to the survival of sachet and bottled water companies, especially before arriving at any decision to increase tariffs.
Although the National Association of Sachet and Packaged Water Producers (NASPWP), which boasts 3,000 members, has announced that with effect from February 1, 2016 the price of a sachet of water will be 30Gp instead of the current 20Gp due to the recent hikes in the prices of utilities and fuel, as well as plastics, it has also expressed concern over what it terms discriminatory rates given to the members by the PURC.
The NASPWP says it is being charged GH¢11.21 per cubic metre for sachet water, representing an increase of 195 per cent, while the rate for bottled water has now increased from GH¢10.7 to GH¢50.76 per cubic metre, representing an increase of more than 400 per cent. These increases are more than what the PURC announced and what other commercial users of water are being charged.
But even before the NASPWP makes good its threat to further increase the price of its products if the PURC does not act on its concerns and heed its call to adjust water rates to a standard commercial rate of GH¢10.07 per cubic metre, we urge the streamlining of the pricing for the commercial usage of water.
Failure to do that will only result in most of the sachet water producers going out of business and workers being laid off, people in the supply chain becoming poorer economically or consumers having to pay dearly for the water produced.
The Daily Graphic believes that in view of the important role that NASPWP plays in the economy of Ghana, it needs to be helped not only to stay in business but also produce wholesome water for the public.