Ho, Peki, Have plunged into water crisis - Debris from construction site fills GWL Kpeve intake
SILT and other forms of debris from a hill close to the Kpeve Water Intake Point have been washed into the water source following heavy rains over the weekend, plunging Ho into another state of possible water crisis.
The situation has prompted Ghana Water Limited (GWL) to suspend water production as a result of the high turbidity at the intake.
“Due to high raw water turbidity, we decided to shut down the intake at 9:10 pm,” said a senior official of the GWL, who chose to remain anonymous.
An official of the water company said the company stopped production because after two hours of light rainfall, the turbidity of raw water shot up to 139.0NTU, with filtered water turbidity settling at 6.83NTU and final turbidity of 11.5NTU.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the values were above thresholds, hence the decision to shut down.
“As usual, it would take some time to monitor the quality parameters before resumption of production,” the source said.
He said if the trend continued, water supply to the Ho municipality, Peki, Have and their environs would dry up sooner rather than later.
The GWL official suspects that construction trash from a holiday resort project, which took off early this year atop the hill, runs down the slope into the intake during rainfalls, causing anxiety to the GWL.
Regional minister
In a decisive response to the problem, the Volta Regional Minister, James Gunu, has ordered an immediate stoppage of work at the construction site.
He confirmed this in an interview and told the Daily Graphic that development must not be at the expense of the environment and the health of the people.
Mr Gunu said he had summoned the developers and other stakeholders in the project for an emergency meeting this week to discuss the problem.
When contacted, the Volta Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kosi Zu-Cudjoe, said that although the project took off under a permit from the agency, the project was expected to take place strictly under the legal environmental framework of LI 2504.
He said the agency was very worried over the reports of filth from the construction site running down the slope in the GWL intake.
For that matter, a team from the agency would visit the construction site to see things at first hand and decide on the appropriate steps to address the situation as soon as possible, Mr Zu-Cudjoe affirmed.
As of yesterday, there was no supply of water to Ho.
“This is because it rained again yesterday, and we are expecting another rainfall today,” the GWL official explained.
Meanwhile, public outcry over the situation is growing and spreading widely over the crisis.
In January this year, a technical problem at the Kpeve Water Intake left Ho in a similar situation, but the fault was repaired in a few weeks.
