East Legon Hills residents petition GWL over erratic water supply

Residents of East Legon Hills have petitioned the Ghana Water Limited (GWL) over prolonged erratic water supply to the area, with some households going without water for up to 16 months.

The Chairman of the East Legon Hills Water Utility Committee, Kweku Bernard, who briefed journalists after a closed-door meeting with the management of GWL in Accra, said the meeting followed the presentation of a formal letter expressing their grievances over the lack of water supply to the community.

He said the company had agreed to set up a joint team made up of representatives of the residents, officials from the district and regional offices of the company to better assess and understand the challenges affecting water distribution in the area.

The team, Mr Bernard said, would also work to determine specific days of the week when water could be supplied to the community as a temporary measure to ease the hardship faced by residents.

Prior to their meeting, he said, they had made multiple visits to the district and regional offices, where no resolution was found, which led them to visit the head office for results.

He said the petition was also copied to the Minister of Works, Housing and Water Resources, Kenneth Gilbert Adjei; the Member of Parliament for Kpone Katamanso, as well as the district and regional managers of the company.

Present at the meeting were the Deputy General Manager of GWL in charge of Operations, Michael Botse-Baidoo; the Chief Manager in charge of Public Relations, Stanley Martey, and the Chief Manager in charge if Special Duties, Chris Siawor.

Reasons

Mr Bernard said the company, at the meeting, cited challenges relating to piping and topography of the area as reasons for the water shortage, which he found surprising, as such issues were not present in 2024.

“It was the same topography, but we were getting water in 2024. We had water at least twice every week, sometimes even three times (in a week),” he said.

He added that the company also mentioned problems with power outages, which affected pumping and the flow of water through the pipes.

Water supply

Mr Bernard stressed that his area received water only once last year, with some parts of East Legon Hills being without water for about five months.

As a result, he said, this forced residents to rely on alternative and often expensive sources of water for their daily needs.

He also raised concerns about the quality of water, citing reports of worms being found in water supplied by some water tanker operators.

“All of us buy water. One of the residents found worms in his tank, as we don't know the source of the tankers and where they get the water from,” he said.

Despite the challenges, he said, they were hopeful that their engagement with GWL and the proposed interim measures would help to alleviate their current water crisis.

Resident

Another resident, Patience Antonio, said the water crisis in the area had negatively affected their health, finances and their environment.

“We have pursued this aggressively. We've gone through the levels.

Today, we are here. We met the Deputy General Manager himself and he's telling us what solutions they could put in place going forward,” she said.

Ms Antonio stated that two years ago, the community had no water issues, which raised questions about what the current problems were.

She, however, said the community was willing to participate in the committee to be set up by the company to work towards a lasting solution.