The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR) in collaboration with the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) is supplying 30,000 litres of water to residents of Chorkor in Accra on daily basis till the end of June this year.
The exercise formed part of government’s interventions to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
At the various points where the Polytanks were mounted, residents had massed up with various water containers with the hope of fetching a gallon of water without observing social distancing while others had no face or nose masks on.
Inspecting three 10,000-litre Polytanks and a stand pipe erected at vantage points in the community, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah said the water was part of government’s effort to give communities without water free water to enable them observe the COVID-19 protocols.
She said the provision of the tanks was to help the turnaround time of the water tankers adding that “ this will ensure that the water tankers do not spend too much time at a particular place but it would off load the water into the polytanks and then move to another place.”
She said government was absorbing the cost of the water from the source to the final consumer and that no one was expected to charge a fee for the water.
The Minister urged the assembly member of the area to involve the unit committee members in controlling the crowd that mass up at the water points to fetch water.
Madam Dapaah encouraged the residents to put on their nose masks whenever they step out and also observe social distancing when fetching the water.
The Managing Director of GWCL, Dr Clifford A. Braimah said the intervention was to fill in the gaps especially at places where the company did not have pipes.
He said the installation of the polytanks would help the company estimate it customers and know the amount of water supplied to residents in Chorkor.
He urged the residents not to misuse the water because it was free, adding that “we need to guard against waste because we do not have enough water to waste.”
The Accra West GWCL Chief Manager, Mark Teiko Codjoe said a poly tank would serve about 2000 residents a day.
BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU
