Akufo-Addo’s free water to cost govt about GHC300m - Report
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For deciding to absorb the water bills of Ghanaians for the months of April, May and June, the government of Ghana will have to cough up about GHC300 million.
Read full articleAccording to a report by the Daily Graphic, government will spend more as it has to pay commissions to vendors and compensate private venders who have been asked to stop selling their water and serve it to their communities for free.
“We’re yet to determine which amount will be given as compensation, we’re working out the modalities to enable us to come out with the actual figures,” a highly placed source at the company told the Daily Graphic on condition of anonymity.
Checks by the Daily Graphic also indicates that government departments and agencies debt owed to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) currently stands at GHC137 million.
In the fifth address of President Akufo-Addo to the nation of COVID-19, he announced that the government was going to bear the cost of water for Ghanaians for the months of April, May, and June, as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
With regular hand washing recommended as one of the safety measures against the virus, it is expected the intervention by the government will give Ghanaians access to an uninterrupted supply of water.
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, on a visit to some communities in the Greater Accra Region to assess the level of compliance of the Presidents Free Water directive, asked that all customers of the GWCL categorized as domestic users, but sell water to residents in their communities to register with the GWCL and be re-categorisd to be eligible for the payment of commissions or compensations during the period.
She directed such customers to visit the offices of the GWCL for their registration and re-categorisation.
While urging the cooperation of the general public to ensure the a successful implementation of the directive, the minister called on landlords and other water operators to make their water accessible to their communities and register with their GWCL district offices to be eligible for commission/compensation.
