The Management of the Ghana Water Company Limited says it has instituted a ‘strategic water supply-demand management plan” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of its new strategy, it has arranged with “other institutions like the NADMO [National Disaster Management Organisation], National Security and other agencies with water Tankers to support our fleet of tankers in the delivery of water to critical areas.”
The new plan is to determine water volumes that need to be supplied in order to meet the various demands of the general public and that of other essential institutions during the outbreak.
While assuring of optimum water provision, the GWCL is, however, encouraging households and organizations to constantly store water for use during periods of uninterrupted water supply.
In a statement, the company said:
“The Management of the Ghana Water Company Limited wishes to assure the general public that, it appreciates the role of water supply in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and assures consumers that, a strategic water supply-demand Management Plan is in place, due to the variance in the increasing demand and the volumes that GWCL is able to supply.”
“As a result, GWCL has put in place measures for all our regions to constantly check on essential service providers and critical facilities especially hospitals, clinics, Airports, MMDAs, and Hotels to ensure that these facilities are adequately served to enable them to store to meet their 24/7 water demand. GWCL wishes to emphasize that, it is essential for these institutions to store water and will again advise these institutions and the general public who do not have adequate storage facilities to do so. This will ensure that they have enough water so that in the event of interrupted water supply, which could be due to power challenges, emergency repair works, etc. they can still be served from their storage tanks.”
Water crisis in Coronavirus times
Most Ghanaians in various parts of the country are still experiencing water shortages in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
This very lack of potable water is undermining Ghana’s COVID-19 fight as many of the residents in the affected areas are finding it extremely difficult to abide by some of the safety and preventing measures such as the regular washing of hands under running water.Experts have thus asked the government as part of efforts to prioritize and increase investments towards universal access to safe water to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
But the GWCL says, it has also arranged with other institutions like the National Disaster and Management Organization (NADMO), National Security and other agencies with water tankers to support our fleet of tankers in the delivery of water to critical areas.
Meanwhile, as management of the company ensures the reliability of supply, customers have been encouraged to “pay their bills via mobile money with all the telcos, the Bank Apps and GWCLs collection and Revenue Pay points throughout the country”.
