Water meter thief jailed
The Ashaiman District Court has sentenced Samuel Kpomble, a 25-year-old labourer, to six months imprisonment with hard labour for stealing water meters belonging to the Ghana Water Company Limited.
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The court presided over by Mr Derrick Parden Eshun convicted Kpomble on his plea of guilty of stealing.
The facts of the case stated that the labourer and one other, who is currently at large, were arrested by residents on Monday, August 21, 2024, at Golf City in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality at about 1300 hours stealing water meters belonging to GWCL.
He was subsequently handed over to the Golf City Police and arraigned before the court after investigations.
Meanwhile, the Tema Regional Communications Manager of the GWCL, Sampson Ampah, told the Ghana News Agency that the region had recorded over 500-meter thefts in the past three months.
Mr Ampah said there were extracts from the police where the customers reported the incidents and requested a replacement.
He explained that the current meters being installed together with the other components such as the stopcock and safety valve were all plastic.
“We are, therefore, appealing to the scrap dealers to desist from buying any GWCL meters from any person,” he said, adding that “the issue is alarming and also because we have to replace these meters to our customers at a cost to GWCL.”
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He appealed to the public to be vigilant and report any suspicious activities related to water meter theft to the police.
Water coverage
Meanwhile, the GWL has maintained that despite all the challenges it faces, it aims to achieve 100 per cent water coverage across the country by 2030.
The Chief Manager of Public Relations and Communications at GWL, Stanley Martey, stated that the company has plans to expand its operations nationwide to ensure that water reaches every corner of Ghana.
He said that was part of the company’s broader plan to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
“We have our development plan to meet 100 percent [water] access by 2030 and even per the SDG goals, we are supposed to meet 100 percent access by 2030 and it is in line with our government’s vision and it is also in line with our company’s target and vision, so we are working with that.
“You will remember that in 2020, we cut sod for a number of treatment plants to be built and they are all in line to ensure that we can meet the targets of 2030 and so far, coverage is around 80 percent and with the development plan in place, we are sure that baring any unforeseen circumstances, we should be able to meet the target of 100 percent by 2030.”