Come again, Ghana Water Company
I am perplexed by many conflicting situations happening all around us in this country, but one that got me gaping was the news that the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) was going to introduce pre-paid metering system in its scheme of operations.
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I write as a layperson with no knowledge in hydrology, engineering or geophysical science, but what I do know is to be shrewd enough to survive in an austere environment, commonly acknowledged as being streetwise. This move by the GWCL will further impoverish the masses. What happened to the catchphrase we were taught in primary school that WATER IS LIFE? Has that obvious truth undergone mutation to now lose its truism?
Already, a section of the masses do not get regular water supply. In fact, there are some communities even in the national capital that cannot recollect easily when water last flowed through their pipes, yet they are billed each month. What should have happened, but has not, was to charge the company for non-compliance cum non-performance.
The GWCL seem to forget that it is in a binding contract with the people of Ghana to supply water. It has done well overtime but not up to expectation. Even presently, water supply is erratic and often cut without prior information, as if to say they do not give a damn.
I believe that for so long the GWCL has not been held accountable to the people and has been left to do things the way they choose.
I understand they have proposed to embark on a pilot with commercial and industrial consumers and if successful, transfer it to residential users.
That, I’m afraid, will lead to a stagnation of the industrial and manufacturing sectors which are already crouching under huge electricity and gas tariffs.
We are not growing because our industrial and manufacturing base as a country is weak. Consequently, we have become a country of shopkeepers, selling what others produce.
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Agreed that water production is an expensive enterprise, but the bane of the GWCL has for a very long time been their inability to collect revenue that is due them. It was because of this and others that at a point in time, Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL) from South Africa was brought into the picture to help out.
At the time AVRL was leaving in 2011, it claimed in a report that revenue generation had improved tremendously to the extent that the company was able to achieve 90 per cent of its revenue generation target. This means, the company had to work hard to retrieve the remaining 10 per cent.
However, gauging by the desperation by which the company wants to introduce pre-paid metering indicates that the company is aiming at improving on revenue mobilisation.
So the question is, what happened so soon after the exit of AVRL to have made GWCL slump in revenue stakes?
The GWCL makes us to understand that producing water entails huge capital investment. Unfortunately, I am afraid the cost involved cannot be raised through tariffs. Those costs are made part of government budget and that is why we pay taxes.
Revenue raised through tariffs are meant to underwrite operational cost. I am compelled to say that, the issue confronting GWCL has to do with proper allocation of public financing and their useful utilisation.
The government through the GWCL must prioritise investment in the water sector through the taxes that we pay. The ordinary citizen who is already burdened with increases in fuel prices and its attendant price hikes in all consumables will definitely be hard pressed if water is made pre-paid.
Even when it has not been made pre-paid a lot of people are cut off from supply. Unlike electricity and gas, for instance, water is an essential commodity. We could do without electricity or say gas, but not water.
The GWCL must get to the table and begin to strategise to find ways of collecting what is owed them from the commercial and industrial users of the commodity, it must not use its inability to deal with its huge debtors to sweep all others into the minefield.
It is possible that with proper planning and an efficient workforce, it should stay solvent without overtaxing the people or choose the soft way out of the situation.
As citizens, it is important also to note just as the Akans say; won som, won som, wo dze nyinpa na oye, which in loose English translation means, a lot more hands are required to lift a heavy object than one, that we have to pay our bills regularly and on time so the GWCL can get funds to get water running at all times.
This matter brings into sharp focus the need to preserve our water bodies, some of which have dried up, are drying up and are being destroyed needlessly through illegal mining.
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The United Nations has predicted that any future wars on a massive scale in the world will be over scarce water resources. Let us jealously protect what we have.