KATH appeals to GWL to install separate pipeline to improve services at hospital

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi has been without water for more than 12 days.

This is due to a major damage to the main line of the Ghana Water Limited that supplies water to the hospital.

The management of KATH has been left with no option than to rely on the Ghana National Fire Service, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), and some water private companies to the enable it carry out smooth operations at the tertiary hospital.

The management of KATH has, thus, appealed to GWL to provide the teaching hospital with a dedicated line, as the existing one was not feasible due to the demanding nature of providing health service to the people.

In a statement issued last Thursday, and signed by its Head of Public Affairs, Kwame Frimpong, the hospital emphasised that "the current arrangement where it shares a line with several other areas in Kumasi has been problematic.”

It said the alternative arrangements instituted by the facility, such as sinking boreholes and reservoirs at the hospital, had not been able to meet the demands of its operations during the prolonged period of water supply interruptions.

"There is also the need to expand the main reservoir of the hospital to improve the availability of water during such prolonged break in supplies", the statement said.

According to the statement, on the average, KATH has over 6,000 staff, 4,000 medical and nursing students, 1,300 outpatients, over 700 inpatients and a countless number of visitors accessing its premises on a daily basis, and as such needed the intervention to safeguard the availability of water for uninterrupted operations.

"Management wants to reiterate that, at all times, it has taken steps to mitigate the adverse impact of prolonged water supply challenges on the hospital's operations and beyond,” it said, and expressed the hope that with the additional reservoirs and re-routing of supplies by the GWL, the challenge would be a thing of the past.

KATH’s management also commended the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr Frank Amoakohene, for some immediate interventions to get more water tankers to improve water supply to the hospital.