Child Sanitation Diplomat, Maame Akua Ohenewaa Gyimah, has advised the public, especially children, to desist from wasting water to ensure that other communities get access to clean water.
Maame Gyimah indicated that treating water by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) was expensive, therefore, wasting it had a negative effect on the country’s finances and hindered extension of the service to communities, which need it.
She gave the advice during a tour of the GWCL Kpong Treatment Plant with her mates from the Dawhenya Methodist ‘B’ Basic School as part of the celebration of 2023 World Water Day, which is marked globally on March 22.
The tour was organized by Kings Hall Media in collaboration with the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS).
The theme for 2023 World Water Day is “accelerating the change to solve the water and sanitation crises.”
She said other practices such as washing, open defecation, disposal of refuse, and illegal mining in water bodies, among others, were some of the practices that must be stopped “if Ghana wants to meet the Sustainable Development Goals on water and also provide potable water to its citizens.”
She said the tour of the Kpong Treatment Plant was an eye opener on the expensive processing of raw water before reaching households and pledged to encourage children and adults to be responsible in their water usage.
Ms. Sharon Quaye, Programme Manager, Kings Hall Media, said children must know the importance of water as humans could not live without it and reiterated the need to conserve it.
Ms Quaye said Kings Hall Media and partners organized the tour for the pupils to inculcate good sanitation practices and to appreciate where the water they used came from and how it was processed.
She expressed the hope that the children would fall in love with good sanitation practices and serve as ambassadors of change among their peers, family and community.
Mr. Prince Osei, Technical Assistant at the GWCL Kpong Treatment Plant, took the children through the ten stages of water treatment, saying the company had put in measures to ensure that consumers received only the best water in line with the Ghana Standards Authority and Food and Drugs Authority’s requirements.
He said to ensure the quality was maintained, samples were taken every hour for testing for all the stages of treatment.
Mr. Osei said the stages of water treatment were screening of the raw water, which was then pumped through a 72-inch pipe to the other stages of aeriation, segmentation, filtration, and disinfection.
It also goes through the Power of Hydrogen, storage, laboratory test, and distribution through the various booster stations, he added.