Ashanti Region GWCL rolls out plan to recover GHC40m debt from customers

Water consumers in the Ashanti North Region catchment area of the Ghana Water Company Limited owe the company over GHC40 million for water supplied.

The Ashanti North Regional Director of the GWL, Theophilus Tawiah Collins who disclosed this on accounting for customers project, explained that this substantial debt is affecting the company’s capacity to maintain an uninterrupted water supply to residents.

The event brought together customers of the Water company in and around Kronum Afrancho .

The company explained to the customers about their new policies and also phasing out the paper billing system.

Officials from the Ghana Water Company Limited announced that Ghana Water Company is launching a revenue mobilization campaign to recover the outstanding GHS 40 million, a necessary step to sustain its water supply operations in the region.

“Currently, Ghana Water Company has a big issue of arrears owed by customers. Countrywide, we are owed in excess of GHS800 million and when you come to Ashanti North Region alone, the arrears are in excess of GHS40millions and that is a big problem for us,” Mr Tawiah said.

Highlighting the disturbing situation, Mr Tawiah said such non-payment of bills affects its operational strength since it imports several of its inputs for water treatment.

“Ghana Water Company at the moment is not a subvented organisation and so what we need to do in our day-to-day operations, we need to depend on the bills our customers pay us. Thus, we buy chemicals in foreign currencies, pipes, fuel our vehicles, maintain equipment breakdowns which happen frequently, pay salaries of staff and a lot more.

“All these require a lot of money, and that money comes from the bills customers pay. So if you have a customer who pays you just GHS300 out of a bill of GHS,1000, it means you’re not in good business,” he observed.

The Acting Western Regional Chief Manager of the Ghana Water Company therefore said it is embarking on an intensive revenue mobilisation to recover these arrears with disconnections for defaulters.

“We are moving from house to house to collect bills that people owe us from now till December ending. If we come to your house, we expect that you pay us what you owe us. It is not in our interest to disconnect a customer, so we want customers to pay their bills even before we get there,” he added.

He said currently, one of the major complaints they keep receiving from customers is irregular/ no flow of water through their taps.

According to him, in solving this challenge, Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area Project to improve upon water infrastructure and provide subsided water connection fees to the good people of GKMA has been completed.

He announced that, the total water improvement works was made up of laying of about 100 kilometers new pipelines and connect 6,000 households in 16 low-income communities within 10 Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies.

He stated that the connection fees were highly subsidised and registered customers have been connected and are currently getting water in their homes.

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