Doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi have halted all surgical procedures indefinitely due to a severe water shortage affecting the facility for over a week.
In a memo dated March 25, 2025, the Komfo Anokye Doctors Association (KADA) informed hospital management of their decision, stressing that it was taken in the interest of patient safety.
“This memo is to formally inform management of the decision taken by the Orthopaedic and Emergency Directorate to temporarily halt the admission of new patients until the availability of water is restored,” the statement said.
The doctors highlighted that the prolonged water shortage has significantly disrupted healthcare services, affecting hygiene, surgical operations, and overall patient care.
“Despite efforts to manage the situation, the current lack of water has reached a critical point, compromising both patient safety and healthcare delivery,” the memo warned.
Dr. Michael Leat, chairman of KADA, acknowledged the inconvenience caused by the suspension but assured that medical staff would continue attending to existing patients.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and kindly request management’s urgent intervention to address the water crisis. The directorates will continue to manage existing patients to the best of our ability while prioritizing safety and hygiene,” he said.
KADA further urged management to explore alternative water sources and keep the medical staff updated on efforts to resolve the crisis.
Meanwhile, KATH’s management revealed that the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has yet to restore the hospital’s water supply after cutting service last week.
“We are at the moment depending on alternative sources which have proven inadequate due to the huge volumes of water required for our operations daily.
“At the moment, apart from KATH’s own sources, the GNFS, KMA, and the GWCL are assisting with alternative supplies, but they are insufficient to meet our operational needs. We are in constant touch with the Regional office of the GWCL to expedite the repair works which occasioned the cessation of water supply to the hospital,” the Public Relations Directorate explained.
Denmark is mobilizing support from other European Union (EU) member countries to expand its efforts in improving water access in Northern Ghana, Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Tom Nørring, has announced.
Speaking at a stakeholder meeting in Accra with Ghana Water Limited and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Ambassador Nørring emphasized the need for a collective approach to tackling water scarcity in the region.
“This mission is not Denmark’s alone. We will be bringing other EU member countries on board to join this initiative,” he stated.
Denmark has already committed GH₵1 million this year to enhance access to clean water in Bolgatanga and Wa, a move expected to benefit over 10,000 residents.
The initiative is part of Denmark’s broader strategy, launched last August, to prioritize water solutions in Africa.
To ensure sustainable impact, the Danish water treatment company Alumichem will collaborate with local authorities to implement advanced water purification solutions.
“We’ve worked with Alumichem in the past, alongside local authorities here in Ghana, to build highly efficient and effective water treatment facilities,” the ambassador added.
Denmark has long supported global water initiatives, particularly in Africa, with the goal of doubling the export of Danish water technology by 2030.
By bringing in additional EU partners, the project aims to expand its reach and provide lasting solutions to water challenges in underserved communities across Northern Ghana.
Ghana Water Limited (GWL) in the Ashanti Region has announced that the Barekese Water Treatment Plant will be temporarily shut down.
The shutdown will take place from Monday, March 17th, to Wednesday, March 19th, 2025, to allow for the installation of new interconnection pipelines and foot valves at the Suame roundabout. This upgrade is expected to improve water distribution in the metropolis.
Communities such as Offinso, the entire Kumasi Metropolis, and nearby areas will be affected. In a statement, GWL acknowledged the inconvenience but assured residents that engineers will work swiftly to restore water supply within the scheduled period.
According to GWL, this project is part of ongoing efforts to expand the water supply capacity from the Barekese Water Treatment Plant, ensuring better service delivery and addressing supply issues.
The company has urged essential service providers, particularly hospitals and schools, to store enough water in preparation for the temporary disruption.
While apologizing for the inconvenience, GWL’s management has called on the public to remain patient, emphasizing that the initiative is aimed at enhancing water services in the long term.
Residents of Kanvili Kpawmo in the Sagnarigu Municipality are grappling with a prolonged water shortage, as the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has failed to restore supply for over three months.
Despite the absence of running water, households continue to receive monthly bills, a situation that has fueled widespread frustration within the community.
Locals recall that the last time tap water flowed was on December 14, 2024. Since then, they have been left with no choice but to depend on expensive private water tankers and sachet water, driving up their living costs and raising health concerns.
Expressing his frustration, one resident remarked,“It’s unacceptable that we’re being billed for a service we’re not receiving. GWCL seems more interested in collecting revenue than ensuring we have access to clean water”.
The problem is not unique to Kanvili Kpawmo, as similar complaints have emerged from other affected communities, further highlighting GWCL’s inefficiencies.
Community member Lazarus Avonsige emphasized the growing dissatisfaction, stating,“The situation has eroded trust in GWCL’s commitment to serving the public.”
Residents are now calling for an immediate resolution, demanding the restoration of water supply and a fair billing system that accurately reflects consumption.
They are also urging regulatory authorities to intervene and hold GWCL accountable.
Residents of the Amasaman District will experience a temporary water supply disruption as Ghana Water Limited (GWL) carries out essential maintenance at the Nsawam Treatment Plant.
The maintenance, set to take place from March 1 to March 7, 2025, will reduce water production, leading to shortages in several areas.
According to a statement signed by Solace A. M. Akomeah, Communications Manager for the Accra West Region, the affected communities include Amasaman Township, Abehenease, Toman, Sapeiman, Pobiman, Obeyeyie, Daaresalam, Fise, Amanfrom, parts of Pokuase, and nearby areas.
GWL has advised residents to store enough water in advance and assured them that the maintenance work is aimed at improving water supply reliability.
Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has urged residents grappling with water shortages to remain calm, assuring them that urgent measures are being implemented to resolve the situation.
The company acknowledged the difficulties communities are facing and reiterated its dedication to restoring a consistent water supply as swiftly as possible.
Several towns, including Tamale, Bimbilla, Kasoa, and Ho, have suffered extended water shortages, disrupting daily routines.
In Ho, the crisis has worsened, putting immense pressure on vital institutions like hospitals and prisons, which have been compelled to seek alternative water sources to continue operations.
Speaking to Channel One TV’s Adwoa Tenkorama, GWCL Communications Manager Stanley Martey reassured residents that steps were being taken to address the problem.
He specifically guaranteed that Ho’s water supply would stabilize within a week, stressing that the company was working tirelessly to restore normalcy across all affected regions.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused, but as we have stated, we are working around the clock to restore supply. By the end of the week, we expect the situation to improve within the municipality,” he stated.
He added that a backup water pump had been serviced and was ready for use, while another was scheduled for installation by Thursday.
“Having two standby pumps will serve as a short-term solution to this challenge,” he added.
Mr. Martey also condemned unauthorized water usage, highlighting that it aggravates the shortage for other residents.
The Minister-Designate for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has outlined a new strategy to tackle the severe damage inflicted on Ghana’s water bodies by illegal mining activities.
Named the Blue Water Initiative, the program aims to rehabilitate polluted water systems and rejuvenate impacted areas into thriving ecological and economic zones.
Appearing before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on January 27, Armah-Kofi Buah highlighted the extensive harm caused by galamsey on the environment and stressed the critical need for long-term solutions to preserve Ghana’s natural heritage.
“We have some initiatives that will help us heal the wounds of our country,” Mr. Buah stated. “Our forest, which is the heart of our survival, has been completely damaged and devastated. The Blue Water Initiative seeks to heal and harness the areas degraded by illegal mining into hubs of economic and ecological recovery.”
Rivers and streams, once vital to the livelihoods of rural and urban communities, have been contaminated by mercury and other toxic substances due to unregulated mining activities.
Alongside the Blue Water Initiative, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah outlined the Tree for Life Initiative, a program designed to restore Ghana’s diminishing forest cover.
The initiative will emphasize widespread tree planting and forest regeneration to combat the effects of illegal logging, mining, and agricultural expansion.
“We are also going to do Tree for Life Initiative by intensifying afforestation and we will encourage afforestation across Ghana,” the Lands Minister-Designate added.
Illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, has emerged as a severe environmental threat, destroying forests and destabilizing natural ecosystems across Ghana.
Consumers of electricity and water in Ghana are set to experience further economic strain as the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) announces tariff hikes of 3.02% for electricity and 1.86% for water, effective October 1, 2024.
This increment comes after the Commission’s quarterly review, designed to account for fluctuations in critical economic indicators such as the exchange rate, inflation, and the cost of natural gas.
The PURC emphasized that these adjustments are necessary to maintain the “financial viability and ability of utility service providers to deliver on their mandate,” ensuring uninterrupted utility services. Specifically, the depreciation of the Ghana Cedi against the US Dollar by 4.96% between the second and third quarters of 2024 contributed significantly to the rise in electricity tariffs.
The exchange rate effect, combined with the Weighted Average Cost of Gas (WACOG), which declined slightly from US$/MMBtu 8.0422 to US$/MMBtu 7.8368, resulted in a total under-recovery of GHS 173.98 million in the electricity sector.
In its statement, the PURC detailed that the “projected inflation rate for the period declined marginally from 24.38% to 22.27%,” but this was not enough to counterbalance other cost-driving factors. The hydro-thermal generation mix, with hydro sources contributing 34.81% and thermal sources 65.19%, remained unchanged for the period under review.
On the water side, a revenue gap of GHS 12.01 million led to the 1.86% increment in tariffs. The PURC expressed that the new rates are essential for “cost recovery for the provision of utility services” and to reduce the government’s fiscal burden in subsidizing the electricity and natural gas sectors.
Utility companies, including the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ghana Water Limited (GWL), and Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), are expected to meet the PURC’s regulatory benchmark of 98% for revenue collection. Failure to do so, the Commission warned, could jeopardize the sustainability of both the energy and water sectors.
In approving these tariffs, the PURC projected monthly revenues for the third quarter as follows: “GHS 2,024.5 million for ECG, GHS 243.20 million for NEDCo, and GHS 227.40 million for GWL.”
The Commission stressed that these increases in revenue requirements must correspond with improved revenue collection in line with the 98% benchmark to ensure the utility providers’ financial health and service delivery.
A Ghanaian woman has raised awareness about the alarming cost difference between imported bottled water and locally produced water, linking it to the urgent need to combat illegal mining activities.
In a compelling video, she highlighted that a bottle of imported water sold at Marina Mall costs GHC13.50, while locally bottled water is priced at just GHC1.50.
“So next time you don’t understand how infuriating this thing is, ask yourself if you can afford this for the rest of your life if your water is contaminated,” she urged.
Her comments come amid growing concerns that Ghana could face a future where it must import water due to the devastating effects of illegal mining on water resources.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSG) echoed these concerns, warning during its 2024 annual general meeting that the country risks having to import water to support local pharmaceutical production if illegal mining is not urgently addressed. They cited the detrimental impact of illegal mining on water bodies, leading to a significant increase in the cost of water treatment for manufacturing.
According to PSG, the escalating expenses associated with treating water for the production of pharmaceutical products are directly linked to the environmental degradation caused by illegal mining activities.
A concerned citizen has shared some insight on Ghana's future if urgent action isn't taken to stop the destruction of our water bodies due to galamsey.
Chief Productions Manager of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Mr. Charles Tulasi, has admitted the growing difficulties many Accra residents are experiencing with watersupply, attributing the shortages to malfunctioning pumps at several critical stations.
He reassured the public that new water plants have been acquired and are scheduled to become operational by the end of October.
Mr. Tulasi also highlighted the significance of prompt water bill payments, stressing that these funds are essential for maintaining and improving the company’s infrastructure, which is key to delivering a steady and dependable water supply for all.
“We understand the frustration of our customers, and we want to assure them that relief is on the way. The faulty pumps will be replaced with new ones, which we expect to improve water supply significantly,” Mr Tulasi stated.
Residents in various areas of Accra have been grappling with severe water shortages, a problem that has worsened in recent months.
The unreliable water supply has led many households to rely on expensive private water vendors to fulfill their needs.
Areas such as Dansoman, Achimota, and surrounding communities have been experiencing irregular water supply, with some residents receiving water just once a week.
In certain parts of Dansoman, the shortage has persisted for over six months, compelling residents to rely on expensive tanker operators for water.
Frustrated locals have shared that they are paying between 50 and 70 cedis per tank from private vendors, significantly straining their household budgets.
For many, these rising costs are becoming unsustainable, yet they feel they have little choice as their taps remain dry.
One resident from Achimota expressed her distress, stating, “We’ve been without regular water for months. We only get supply once a week, and that’s not enough. We have no choice but to buy from the water tankers, but it’s expensive. This can’t go on.”
There is an imminent water crisis if immediate measures are not taken to curb the destructive impact of illegal mining activities, commonly known as galamsey, according to the Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Dr. Clifford Braimah.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Dr. Braimah issued a stark warning about the potential consequences of ongoing water treatment inefficiencies exacerbated by rampant pollution from galamsey operations.
Dr. Braimah expressed deep concern over the escalating volumes of water loss during the treatment process, which have far surpassed acceptable levels. He explained that while the ideal water loss in treatment plants should be around 5%, current losses range between 35% and 50%, a situation he described as “very harmful to our health.”
“The process losses that we are supposed to have on our plant should be 5% or less, but now we are having between 35% to 50% process loss,” Dr. Braimah stated.
He warned that if the situation persists, Ghana could face a future where access to safe drinking water is severely compromised. “We might not even have water,” he cautioned, underscoring the urgency of the issue.
The impact of galamsey on water treatment is profound, with Dr. Braimah highlighting that instead of 95% of treated water reaching customers, only 50% to 55% is currently being delivered. This reduction in water supply is compounded by the increased costs associated with maintaining even this diminished output.
“To even get this 50% or 55%, you have to use more chemicals—more expensive chemicals—to achieve that,” he noted, stressing the unsustainable nature of the current approach.
Dr. Braimah emphasized the critical need for immediate action, urging both citizens and authorities to move beyond political rhetoric and confront the reality of the situation. “Our rhetoric needs to go beyond the political jargons to the reality that citizens must take control over their lives,” he asserted.
While the current water treatment process remains effective in removing harmful elements, Dr. Braimah warned that the continued accumulation of pollutants from galamsey could eventually overwhelm the system.
“It does not mean that once it continues to accumulate, we are not going to get to the levels that we might not be able to do professional treatment to work,” he explained. The ongoing pollution, if left unchecked, could lead to levels that the treatment system cannot handle, posing a dire threat to the nation’s water supply.
Dr. Braimah called on Ghanaians to take the situation seriously and work collectively to prevent further pollution. “The caution is very critical for us to take up and ensure that we do not continue to pollute, so that we will get to levels that are not tolerable to the system, that can create problems for us,” he urged.
When questioned about how long it might take for the situation to reach a critical point, Dr. Braimah admitted it is difficult to predict, noting that detailed analyses have yet to be conducted. He suggested that the Water Resources Commission might have more specific information on the timeline for potential disaster.
In a related development, the GWCL has provided clarification on the ongoing water shortages in the Central and Western regions, pointing to the compounding effects of pollution and treatment inefficiencies.
The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has announced that water supply to the eastern part of the Greater Accra Region will be restored by Wednesday, August 28, 2024, following ongoing repair work on a burst transmission line, according to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).
The supply interruption began on Sunday, August 25, 2024, and has affected several communities, including Dodowa, Oyibi, Frafraha, Adenta, Madina, Ashongman, Haatso, La, Osu, Kanda, the Airport Residential Area, Legon, and surrounding areas.
According to a statement from the GWCL, signed by Chief Manager of Public Relations and Communications, Mr. Stanley Martey, the initial fault occurred on a transmission line that connects the Kpong Treatment Plant to the Dodowa Booster Station.
Although repair work was swiftly completed, further issues were detected on the same transmission line, necessitating a second shutdown for additional repairs.
“Engineers of the GWCL are working tirelessly to replace the weak section of the transmission line,” the statement assured the public.
In the meantime, the GWCL has implemented mitigation measures to reduce the impact of the disruption. Water tankers have been deployed to supply essential service providers such as hospitals and schools in the affected areas.
The GWCL management expressed regret for the inconvenience caused by the water outage and appealed to consumers to bear with the situation while engineers work to fully restore supply by the close of Wednesday, barring any unforeseen challenges.
Ghana’s persistent economic challenges are significantly impacting consumers, businesses, and households alike. Key among these challenges are the ongoing debates and concerns surrounding escalating water and electricity tariffs.
The government defends these tariff increases as essential for covering operational costs, meeting financial commitments, maintaining infrastructure, and ensuring the sustainability of services.
Despite varying consumer opinions on these justifications, the tariff hikes persist, with announcements led by the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC).
From July 1, 2024, Ghanaians will encounter higher costs across several essential commodities and utilities, including water, electricity, cement, and fuel.
Water and Electricity
Ghanaian households and industries are set to confront higher utility tariffs for both water and electricity. This increase was previously announced by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) during their second-quarter review.
As per the PURC, electricity tariffs will rise by 3.45% for lifeline consumers using up to 30 kWh, while residential and non-residential consumers using more than 30 kWh will face a 5.84% increase.
Similarly, major industries in the country will experience a tariff hike of 4.92% for electricity consumption.
Concurrently, water tariffs will see a 5.16% increase across all customer categories as part of Ghana’s Quarterly Tariff Review Mechanism adjustments.
The PURC specified that these changes will be effective from July 1, 2024, through September 2024, signaling a period of heightened operational costs for water and electricity consumers nationwide.
Cement
In the first half of this year, Ghana has witnessed a notable surge in cement prices, impacting a critical sector: construction, which heavily relies on this essential material.
Leading companies like Ghacem, Dzata Cement, and Diamond Cement attribute the price increases to rising costs of transportation, electricity, and raw materials.
By May, cement prices had climbed by GH¢10.00, reaching approximately GH¢95 per bag (32.5R) at certain depots across the country. This rise has already disrupted construction projects, affecting their schedules.
Starting July 1, depending on the source, a bag (32.5R) is expected to sell for over GH¢108, varying by brand and quantity from current prices.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Trade is moving forward with a Legislative Instrument (L.I.) to regulate cement prices. Trade Minister Kobina Tahir Hammond argues that this step is essential to prevent arbitrary pricing and potential exploitation by cement manufacturers.
However, some cement producers strongly oppose this initiative, claiming the government did not adequately consult them before pushing for the L.I.
Fuel
Consumers can expect a rise in petroleum prices over the next two weeks, reflecting adjustments during the first pricing window of July, with petrol set to increase by 2%.
Currently, GOIL is selling one litre of petrol at GH¢14.60, while diesel is priced at GH¢14.75 per litre.
The Institute for Energy Security forecasts a 4.0% increase in diesel prices across various pumps, alongside a 5% hike in Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) costs.
These price hikes are attributed to the cedi’s depreciation against the US dollar, which is trading at approximately GH¢15.60 in the forex market. Additionally, the US dollar has strengthened in the global oil market.
As of July 1, 2024, Brent crude futures climbed 42 cents to $85.42 per barrel by 0845 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 44 cents to $81.97.
National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has stated that he now carries his own water to drink wherever he goes.
His comment comes on the back of poisoning claims that surfaced after the sad demise of Deputy Finance Minister Dr John Kumah.
Asiedu Nketia says he has become more careful with the food and water he eats and drinks when he is outside his home.
During an interview on Asempa FM, the NDC chairman declined the water they offered and instead chose to drink his own water.
“That’s why I have my own water now. Normally, I’d drink the water offered, but today I brought my own. Everyone’s carrying their own bottle now… [laughs]. I saw a video of Nana B turning down the water offered to him [laughter],” Asiedu Nketia indicated with laughter.
On March 7, the death of Deputy Finance Minister Dr John Kumah was announced after a short illness.
Onua TV presenter Captain Smart, made claims that his death was as a result of food poisoning.
However, his wife came out to refute the poisoning claims indicating that a condition called Myeloma was rather the cause of his husband’s death.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has reported that the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) found that approximately one in every five (19.1%) individuals in Ghana lacked sufficient drinking water in the month before the survey.
The Northern Region had the highest percentage, with one in every three (32.1%) individuals facing inadequate drinking water access.
Oti (31.2%) and North East (26.2%) followed as the regions with the next highest percentages of insufficient drinking water.
In contrast, the Upper East (14.0%) and Ashanti (14.5%) regions had the lowest percentages of individuals without enough drinking water, with figures less than half those of the Northern and Oti regions.
The GSS released this information in a statement to mark this year’s World Water Day, celebrated annually on March 22nd. The theme for 2024 is ‘Water for Peace’.
The GSS also noted that nationally, 6.5% of the population had to travel more than 30 minutes round-trip to access drinking water.
“More than a quarter (27.5%) of the population in the North East Region reported travelling more than 30 minutes to access water, the highest recorded, followed by the Northern (18.6%) and Upper West (18.6%) regions.
“Three in every five (59.9%) persons in Ghana did not have water on their premises. Nine in every ten persons (89.8%) in the Savannah Region did not have water on their premises, the highest recorded and 1.5 times higher than the national average. North East (86.5%) and Oti (83.5%) regions have the second and third highest percent of the population without water on their premises.”
“Greater Accra (22.0%) recorded the lowest percentage of the population without water on the premises. Volta Region (47.1%) is the only other region where less than half of the population does not have water on the premises. More than 90.0 percent of the population in the lowest wealth quintile (93.6%) were without drinking water on their premises, more the five times the percentage recorded for those in the highest wealth quintile (17.5%),” it stated.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), 83.8% of the population nationwide had access to at least basic drinking water services. This was defined as having an improved water source that required no more than a 30-minute round-trip for collection, or having water available on the premises.
“The percentage is lowest in the North East Region (43.4%) where less than half of the population has access to basic water services. Savannah (54.2%), Oti (57.8%), and Northern (64.4%) regions have the next highest percentage of the population with access to basic water services.
Greater Accra (97.7%) and Ashanti (94.8%) were the regions with the highest percentage who have access to basic services, recording figures that are more than twice that of the North East Region.”
“Persons in the poorest wealth quintile have the lowest percentage with at least basic water services (52.1%), almost half the percentage for persons in the highest wealth quintile (97.9%). Eight in every 10 (82.3%) of persons using unimproved water sources did not treat their water. Unimproved water sources refer to unprotected dug wells or unprotected springs,” it stated.
The Service underscored that eight in every 10 (84.3%) persons using surface water (i.e., drinking water directly from a river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal, or irrigation canal) did not treat their water.
The 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey report, resources, and microdata are available to download at no cost from www.statsghana.gov.gh.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has issued guidelines to help people cope with the harsh weather conditions prevailing in the country, which are characterized by dryness, dust, and high temperatures.
February has experienced extremely harsh weather conditions, with dryness and dust leading to a high Air Quality Index, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Ghana Meteorological Agency predicts very hot conditions for the upcoming months of March and April. These adverse weather patterns pose health risks, particularly respiratory illnesses and meningitis.
To address these challenges, the GHS has outlined recommendations to minimize the impact of harsh weather conditions on public health.
These include limiting outdoor activities, especially for children and the elderly, wearing face masks to reduce dust exposure, staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water, and ensuring that individuals with chronic respiratory conditions like asthma continue to take their prescribed medications.
The northern region of the country faces an increased risk of meningitis due to the dry and hot weather conditions. While there have been reported cases of meningitis, there are currently no outbreaks in the country.
Nevertheless, the GHS advises individuals experiencing symptoms such as fever and neck stiffness to seek immediate medical attention at the nearest health facility.
“We urge the public to observe these recommendations during this period of harsh weather conditions and report to the nearest health facility when they have difficulty in breathing,” stated the GHS in its statement.
The GHS reassured the public that it is working diligently to promptly identify and respond to any potential outbreaks during this period and beyond.
Residents of Takoradi, Accra, and other towns could be consuming contaminated food products made from cassava, as some traders at Gwira Dominase in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality of the Western Region are reportedly using water from the galamsey-contaminated Ankobra River to prepare cassava dough.
This contaminated dough is then sent to market centers in Takoradi, Accra, and beyond.
The Ankobra River, which serves several communities in the Nzema area of the Western Region, flows about 190 kilometers south to the sea, acting as the boundary between the Ellembelle District and the Nzema East Municipality.
Despite its socioeconomic importance to the region, the river is heavily polluted due to illegal mining activities, according to the environmental NGO Hen Mpoano, which is working on the conservation of the Amanzule area, including the Ankobra and surrounding water bodies.
“Our research shows it is highly polluted with lead, mercury and cyanide which are used by the illegal miners”, said David Osei, the project officer.
The women at Gwira Dominase, who use water from the highly polluted Ankobra River to prepare the dough, say they add “alum” to purify or decrease its turbidity before mixing it with the cassava.
“The turbidity is terrible. We buy alum to purify the water so we can use it to mix the cassava dough for akyeke and that’s what we at Gwiraman eat. We send some to Takoradi, Accra, Kumasi and in fact all across the country”.
“We are pleading with government for an intervention. This is what we drink. You can imagine the chemicals we are consuming,“ they said in an interview.
The women at Gwira Dominase not only sell the Nzema delicacy, akyeke, but also send some of the cassava dough in its raw state to market centers across the country. These are used in making banku and other dishes in many households.
Evans Asamoah Gyimah, the Water Quality Manager at the Western Regional Office of the Ghana Water Company, expressed concern about the wrongful use of alum or potassium aluminum sulfate, which could result in brain health damage and the generation of diseases like Alzheimer’s. He also highlighted the presence of untreated pathogens in the water, aside from heavy metals. Without intervention, these women will continue to use the contaminated water, putting people’s lives at risk.
Students of T.I. Ahmadiyya Senior High School will no longer need to venture beyond the campus in pursuit of water, as the Water Company Limited has successfully restored water supply to the school.
This development comes in the wake of reports highlighting the challenges faced by the students and the subsequent impact on their daily activities.
Since Monday, students had been navigating various locations in search of water after depleting the reserves in their on-campus reservoir.
The journey led them to cover several kilometers in search of water around Asokwa and neighboring areas.
Officials from the Ghana Water Company Limited attributed the water distribution shortage to recent intermittent power outages.
However, management has now announced the resolution of the situation, with water flowing through the school’s taps as of Thursday evening.
Business operators and residents in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, are expressing frustration and outrage over persistent power outages plaguing the area.
The frequent disruptions in power supply in recent weeks have sparked discontent in the Ashanti Regional capital, raising concerns about the reliability of electricity services in the region.
Areas like Asokwa, Oforikrom, Bosomtwe, and other parts of Greater Kumasi are particularly hard-hit. Complaints include damage to electrical appliances and a negative impact on productivity.
When Asaase News visited TI AMASS Senior High School in Asokwa on Thursday morning, the lack of electricity at water pumping plants forced students to search for water. 15-year-old Pokuaa Nyamekye expressed concern about maintaining good hygiene if the situation persists.
“For someone like me if I have my period and I don’t take my bath I can’t go to the classroom. Some of us have to skip dawn lessons to search for water and this has affected normal life on campus. We humbly pray that this is resolved very soon otherwise things will get worse in the coming days.”
“It started over the weekend and today around 1 am some of us had to hunt for water again”, said another student. “We have come to the court premises for some help. Some are even bathing at the [Kumasi] mall. This is terrible”.
The Ghana National Fire Service, observing the situation, fears more fire outbreaks could occur if nothing is done to address the power outages. DO3 Peter Adai, the Ashanti Regional Spokesperson for the Service, emphasized the importance of safety precautions during power fluctuations.
Efforts to obtain comments from officials at the Electricity Company of Ghana have yielded little results as of the time of this report. However, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) asserts that it is closely monitoring the situation.
The regulator assures that water will be restored by the close of Thursday, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
Richard Asiedu, the Ashanti regional spokesperson at the PURC, explained, “Since last Saturday, we realized that most residents in parts of the Greater Kumasi areas have been experiencing water shortage. We reached out to the ECG, and they informed us that they had a cable blast around one of their substations, so they were trying to fix the situation. The situation has affected water supply as the Ghana Water Company also relies heavily on power supply during their operations.”
There is a strong push for an alternative arrangement to avoid disruptions in power distribution in Kumasi, as residents maintain that the situation is taking a toll on their livelihoods.
The Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam Nartey George, has accused the government of importing a water treatment product called One Drop for use by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), allegedly in place of the traditional chlorine.
According to George, the One Drop product, set to arrive in the country in two weeks, was approved as a disinfectant but not specifically for water treatment by Ghana’s regulatory bodies.
He claimed that the initiative was started by the former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah.
“In 1908, the colonial government introduced chlorine into the treatment of water in Ghana and chlorine is being used all over the world without a problem. All of a sudden somebody wakes up and decides that a product that has been refused by the UK and USA, which is of Norwegian origin but it is not being used by the people of Norway, is fit for use in Ghana.
“This whole thing started under the former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah and now, in about two weeks, the first shipment of the product called One Drop is arriving in Ghana and the Ghana Water Company is buying it to stop the use of chlorine in the treatment of our water” he said.
During an interview on Metro TV on February 1, 2024, George questioned the safety and efficacy of One Drop.
He argued that chlorine, a long-standing water treatment agent, has proven effective, while One Drop has been rejected by the UK and USA. George expressed concerns about potential risks to the health and environment of Ghanaians.
“So far, it’s been checked by CRIR, EPA and the FDA but it was checked when they brought it in and approved it as a disinfectant. So as we speak today, the product is being used for cleaning in hospitals and also in Kotoka during the COVID,” he added.
“Chlorine has served us well. Even with that, we are still dealing with some level of contamination in our water. Now you are going to bring a product where the country in which the product is being manufactured, has not approved its use in the purification of its water,” he added.
Contrarily, Richard Ahiagba, the Director of Communication for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), refuted the claim, stating that GWCL is not transitioning away from chlorine in water treatment.
Hon. Sam George @samgeorgegh has revealed Hon. Cecilia Dapaa led her team to substitute CHLORINE which has been used for the treatment of our Water to ONE DROP which has been rejected by USA, UK, NORWAY and other Foreign Countries due to its efficacy. pic.twitter.com/8MjS8fbq7I
The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) management has outlined the difficulties it encounters in ensuring a consistent water supply to residents in the Greater Accra Region.
Despite a production capacity of 150 million gallons per day, areas such as Adenta, Kasoa, Weija, and Apaapa in La have experienced irregular water supply, leading to concerns from residents.
Some have resorted to purchasing water from tankers at high costs due to the impact on their daily lives.
In an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM, GWCL’s Managing Director, Ing. Dr. Clifford Braimah, attributed the water supply shortfall to unexpected issues at the Kpong and Weija Water Treatment Plants.
“Production of water supply to Accra is 150 million gallons per day or 682,000 cubic meters per day,” he added.
He mentioned challenges such as old pumps breaking down, weed blockage at Kpong due to dam spillage, and tampering with pipelines by customers.
Dr. Braimah called for capital injection, collaboration with the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), and the replacement of outdated pumps to address these challenges.
Highlighting the outdated infrastructure, particularly pumps dating back to 1965, Dr. Braimah emphasized the need for retooling the system and renewing old equipment.
“The recent problem was an unplanned issue at Kpong [Treatment Plant] and that of Weija [Water Treatment Plant]. There are very old pumps that have been trying to manage, and they normally break down at Weija. At Kpong, after the flooding due to the Akosombo dam spillage, there was a weed blockage. Everything is normalized now, and the challenge has been resolved,” the Managing Director of GWCL said.
“Together with the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), we should be able to move to the government and say that there must be some level of injection of capital. We will have to make a proper case that the gap will be closed. If they leave it to us, some people will not pay their tariffs, some will get people who will do illegal connections. Once they do the illegal connections, they don’t take into consideration our hydraulic system. These are the challenges we are faced with.”
“We need to retool the old system; if you go to Kpong [Treatment Plant] today, we have pumps that are as old as 1965. For the regulator, it’s dead. Because we are still using them, we take money to repair them when they break down. So, renewal of the old system,” he stated.
He stressed that the population growth in Accra has surpassed the water company’s capacity, making it imperative to upgrade and address the challenges faced in delivering consistent water supply to residents.
Management of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has addressed challenges faced in ensuring a consistent water supply to residents in the Greater Accra Region.
The company stated that its production of water supply to Accra is 150 million gallons per day.
However, residents in various parts of Accra have raised concerns about irregular water supply, affecting their daily lives and leading some to purchase water from tankers at high prices.
GWCL acknowledged the need for upgrades to meet the increasing demands of Accra’s growing population. The company also recognized that some complaints were related to localized faults that could be promptly addressed when reported.
During an interview on Citi FM, the Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Ing. Dr. Clifford Braimah, said, “Production of water supply to Accra is 150 million gallons per day or 682,000 cubic meters per day.”
Ing. Dr. Clifford Braimah attributed the shortfall in water supply to an unplanned problem encountered at the Kpong and Weija Water Treatment Plants.
“The recent problem was an unplanned issue at Kpong [Treatment Plant] and that of Weija [Water Treatment Plant]. There are very old pumps that have been trying to manage, and they normally break down at Weija. At Kpong, after the flooding due to the Akosombo dam spillage, there was a weed blockage. Everything is normalized now, and the challenge has been resolved,” the Managing Director of GWCL said.
Ing. Dr. Clifford Braimah highlighted several challenges faced by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), including tampering with pipelines by some customers, lack of capital, and overpopulation.
“Together with the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), we should be able to move to the government and say that there must be some level of injection of capital. We will have to make a proper case that the gap will be closed. If they leave it to us, some people will not pay their tariffs, some will get people who will do illegal connections. Once they do the illegal connections, they don’t take into consideration our hydraulic system. These are the challenges we are faced with.”
He called for the retooling of the old system, which has become obsolete, suggesting that some pumps need to be changed.
“We need to retool the old system; if you go to Kpong [Treatment Plant] today, we have pumps that are as old as 1965. For the regulator, it’s dead. Because we are still using them, we take money to repair them when they break down. So, renewal of the old system,” he stated.
The Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Ing. Dr. Clifford Braimah, has acknowledged that the current population of Accra exceeds the water company’s capacity.
Residents in various Accra neighborhoods, including Adenta, Kasoa, Weija, and Apaapa in La, have raised concerns about inconsistent water supply affecting their communities.
The irregular water supply has significantly impacted the daily lives of residents, leading some to resort to purchasing water from tankers at high prices. Complaints indicate that the GWCL failed to communicate plans for temporary water supply cuts in specific areas, with some residents reporting a lack of water for nearly a year.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, January 22, Ing. Braimah addressed the issue, acknowledging the necessity for the GWCL to upgrade its machinery to meet the growing demands of Accra’s residents.
He further emphasized the practical challenges of managing water distribution in a large population with limited resources, stating “Already in Accra, the volume of water we produce, the population has outgrown it, and we are looking at putting up a new system at Kpone to boost our production but resource constraint has been the problem, Since 2017, 2018, we have been working and we have not settled on finances.
“So already if you have a limited volume of water coming into the system, and your population is big, you have to block them and supply them according to the demands of the people but you cannot give everybody [water] at the same times otherwise some will not get. And so we have been limited for a very long time.”
Despite this acknowledgment, Ing. Braimah recognized that some complaints were related to localized faults, assuring residents that prompt action would be taken if reported to the nearest GWCL office.
The Upper West Regional Manager of the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC), Cassiel Eghan Asiedu, has announced that the Commission received 781 complaints from utility consumers, of which 771 were successfully resolved.
The majority of the complaints centered on service quality, with power outages being the primary concern for the Electricity Company, while complaints against the Ghana Water Company included reduced water flow and burst pipelines.
Mr Asiedu revealed these details during the end-of-year gathering of the PURC in Wa, bringing together representatives from the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), Ghana Water Company Ltd, PURC staff, and stakeholders, including members of the Consumer Service Committee in Tumu, Sissala East Municipality.
He described 2023 as a “Year of Operational Efficiency” for the PURC, marked by engagement with various stakeholders on the Commission’s operations. Asiedu credited the year’s successes to the collaborative efforts and support received from stakeholders, including utility service providers and consumers.
Looking ahead to 2024, Asiedu outlined the Commission’s strategic positioning, terming it a “Year of Strategic Impact” with a focus on four key areas known as “STEP” – Self-improvement, Transparency, Enforcement, and Proactiveness.
These areas will emphasize staff capacity building, stakeholder engagement, law enforcement, and proactive service delivery through technology-enabled complaint mechanisms.
Daniel Awortwe, the Upper West Regional Area Engineer of NEDCo, commended the PURC as a significant stakeholder and expressed optimism about continued collaboration.
He highlighted NEDCo’s commitment to leveraging technology to enhance operations, ensuring reliable and high-quality power supply to consumers.
The Upper West Regional Chief Manager of the Ghana Water Company Ltd, Kwasi Abebrese, assured consumers of quality service while acknowledging the workload on staff. He appealed for understanding from consumers as his outfit works to address complaints and challenges.
On October 27, the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Virginia Palmer, alongside Ghana’s Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Dr. Freda Prempeh, officially launched the U.S. Global Water Strategy High Priority Country Plan for Ghana.
The United States, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has outlined plans to invest around $100 million in Ghana’s water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector over the upcoming five years.
This commitment is in addition to the $89 million that USAID has already allocated since 2009. The Country Plan for Ghana aims to raise an additional $20 million from both public and private sectors within the next five years.
Inadequate WASH services have adverse effects on health, education, and economic development, and there are notable regional disparities in Ghana.
For instance, as per the 2021 Population and Housing Census, access to clean water varies from 98% in the Greater Accra Region to 55% in the North East Region. Furthermore, while the national average for open defecation in rural areas stands at slightly over 30%, the five regions in northern Ghana report an open defecation rate exceeding 50%.
During the launch, Ambassador Palmer reaffirmed the U.S. support to Ghana’s WASH sector, saying; “The United States Government looks forward to continuing our partnership to ensure that everyone in Ghana has access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene to improve health and promote economic development. Together, we’ll ensure clean water and sanitation for all.”
The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has taken prompt action to suspend the operations of four sachet water-producing companies in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region.
This decision was made after the FDA detected the presence of microorganisms in water samples collected from these companies, rendering the water unsuitable for human consumption.
The FDA’s actions are part of a proactive approach to ensure public safety, especially in light of the flooding incidents in the lower Volta region following the Akosombo Dam spillage.
A team led by the Volta Region Director of the FDA, Gordon Akurugu, conducted the assessment in collaboration with officials from the FDA, the Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit, and the Ghana Health Service.
Out of the four facilities, two rely on borehole water for production, one receives its supply from the Ghana Water Company, and the last company extracts water directly from the Volta Lake for production.
Mr. Akurugu explained that all four registered facilities had malfunctioning Ultraviolet disinfection systems, making them incapable of purifying the water and rendering it vulnerable to microbial contamination. He also suggested that runoff from the dam might have infiltrated the borehole supplies, causing pollution.
During this period, all the water produced has been confiscated for safe disposal. The FDA is working with the facilities to rectify the identified issues before they can resume production.
“So far we have visited several facilities and samples were picked up 3 days ago. Unfortunately, four of the facilities have been affected by water having microbiological issues. There have been a growth in the samples we picked and therefore those facilities need to fix them before we allow them to come into the market,” he said.
“And it is not only sachet water producers we are visiting, but we are also visiting food vendors, we are visiting restaurant operators, hotels to ensure that they don’t use unsafe water to serve clients,” he added.
Executive Secretary of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Dr. Ishmael Ackah, has revealed that residents in the Eastern Region owe an amount of GH¢46 million for water supplied.
He made this known when he encouraged tertiary institution students to assist in identifying and reporting cases of illegal electricity and water connections.
“In the Eastern Region alone, water consumers owed about GH¢46 million”, Dr Ackah said.
During his address to students at Koforidua Technical University (KTU) on August 29, 2023, Dr. Ackah emphasized the importance of paying utility tariffs and the role students can play in reporting unauthorized connections.
He also highlighted the incentive of a 6% reward on the recovered revenue from illegal connections for whistleblowers.
Dr. Ackah explained that by fulfilling their billing obligations, utility companies can generate the necessary revenue to enhance their service delivery to the public.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Regional Operations and Consumer Services Director at the PURC, Alhaji Jabaru Abukari urged utility consumers to report their concerns with their landlords to the PURC for redress.
The PURC visited the university to interact with, educate, and promote the payment of utility bills among the students. They also encouraged the students to educate their parents about the importance of paying utility bills.
The event, which was attended by university lecturers and administrators, provided students with the opportunity to ask relevant questions about utility services, and they received comprehensive answers to enhance their understanding of the topics discussed.
Water is essential in our lives as it is needed to carry out domestic purposes such as cooking, washing, drinking, etc, as well as commercial purposes.
Many homeowners have installed the pipe system, but do you know how to operate it.
The faucet could be a funny tool to operate.
Luckily, here is a video to save you from all that trouble.
Given the manifold functions of the prostate, maintaining prostate health holds significant importance for men. Consequently, there arises a necessity to explore indigenous remedies and culinary offerings that can potentially provide support for prostate well-being.
Many of these remedies are readily available in our kitchens and on our farms. One such intriguing yet underexplored option is palm nut soup, which merits investigation for its potential benefits to the prostate.
Palm nut soup is derived from the fruit of the palm tree. A study by Sundram et al. (2003) revealed that the palm fruit (Elaies guineensis) yields palm oil, a semi-solid fat rich in palmitic and oleic acids, alongside fat-soluble components such as vitamin E (tocopherols, tocotrienols), carotenoids, and phytosterols.
While some controversies surround vitamin E and its relation to prostate cancer, a crucial aspect often overlooked is the existence of two primary forms: tocopherols and tocotrienols, exhibiting substantial variations in their proportions.
Remarkably, palm vitamin E is composed of 30% tocopherols and 70% tocotrienols. Tocotrienols, extensively studied, possess nutritional and health attributes encompassing antioxidant properties, cholesterol reduction, anti-cancer effects, and safeguarding against atherosclerosis. These benefits are predominantly attributed to the tocotrienol content.
An emerging development originating from oil palm fruit is the water-soluble phenolic-flavonoid-rich antioxidant complex. This complex, marked by potent antioxidant traits, showcases advantageous effects against diverse cancers, including those of the skin and breast.
Its water solubility opens avenues for its application as nutraceuticals and cosmetics, potentially countering skin aging. A subsequent challenge would be to effectively consolidate these diverse palm constituents into a singular functional food offering, enhancing overall nutrition and well-being.
Vitamin E comprises tocopherols, and within this category, four variants of tocotrienols naturally occur: alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. Tocotrienols can be found in the oils of rice bran, palm fruit, barley, and wheat germ.
Notably, palm fruit contains the highest proportion, particularly the abundant 70% tocotrienols present in the soup.
Furthermore, palm oil stands as the most concentrated natural source of tocotrienols. However, achieving the suggested levels of tocotrienols with health benefits would require consuming a significant quantity of palm oil daily.
This brings forth the practicality of palm nut soup as a more accessible means to attain these essential levels of tocotrienols, given that consuming the oil directly isn’t feasible.
The challenge with Tocopherol
A previous study asserts that supplementing with alpha-tocopherol either doesn’t work or may cause harm—by increasing the risk of cancer and heart disease. This systematic review of randomized, controlled trials published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that supplementing with the alpha-tocopherol form of vitamin E increased the risk of death from all causes( Bjelakovic et al. (2007).
The very most recent study was conducted by Duell et al.(2022) published by the American Heart Association scientific statement suggesting that long-term supplementation with alpha-tocopherol can increase the risk of prostate cancer and heart failure.
Another issue with supplementing with alpha-tocopherol is that high doses of tocopherols interfere with the beneficial effects of tocotrienols 70% in the palm fruit. With too much alpha-tocopherol in the system (from supplements), tocotrienols are blocked from absorption and entry into the bloodstream. The 70% tocotrienols-the benefits
Four studies (Constantinou et al. 2020; Marelli et al. 2019; Sailo et al. 2018; Constantinou et al. 2009) have reported that in a supplement form at higher doses, tocotrienols have great potential against a wide range of cancers, including breast, ovarian, prostate, colon, pancreatic, and skin cancers. They also reduce cancer cell proliferation and induce cancer cell death (i.e. apoptosis), with the most malignant forms of cancer appearing to be most sensitive to the actions of tocotrienols. Unlike tocopherols, tocotrienols have no known contraindications or long-term adverse effects. Other emerging interests
Mohamad et al. (2012) study found that tocotrienols in palm fruit support postmenopausal rats with osteoporosis as they strengthen and more quickly heal bone fractures than other vitamin-E-based supplements.
Sen et al.(2004) on humans suggest that tocotrienols get into the brain faster, where they may improve brain function and health.
Meganathan and Fu(2016) tocotrienols may help slow the buildup of plaque in the arteries and decrease cholesterol levels. Also an overall positive effect on human health.
Getting vitamin E tocotrienols in the diet
Natural vitamin E tocotrienols can be found in palm fruit especially delta- and gamma-tocotrienol, but not at high enough doses to be therapeutic. But is enough for prostate support especially for those concerned about reducing their risk of prostate cancer. Even those diagnosed with prostate cancer could also incorporate palm nut soup as part of their diet plan.
However, for those interested in vitamin E tocotrienols supplement look out for the Delta- and gamma-tocotrienols; they are the most potent form and annatto –is a natural food additive is the only known plant that contains 100 percent delta- and gamma-tocotrienol, with no other forms of tocotrienols and no tocopherols. I shall tell you more about that plant.
Also, make sure for the supplement you do not take more than 30 mg/d of tocopherols from other supplements. Most multivitamins and vitamin E supplements contain tocopherols, rather than tocotrienols, so check the labels of your current supplements.
I adapted this table from Kresser Chris(2022) to provide a guide for the recommended dosages of tocotrienol for various uses based on the current clinical evidence.
Take home
Palm fruit used for palm nut soup has 70% of tocotrienols. Hence, it is good for prostate health. For those interested in the supplement form of vitamin E tocotrienols; you can get them in the pharmacy. Vitamin E, like many vitamins, has several isoforms that occur naturally in foods. These isoforms are called vitamers and include 4 tocopherols and 4 tocotrienols, each labelled alpha, beta, delta, or gamma.
The study on vitamin E and cancer risk eventually used a single vitamer, alpha-tocopherol, which may be one reason for the negative findings. Evidence indicates other vitamins of E play a more prominent role in reducing the risk of cancer, including prostate cancer. Tocotrienols were also not part of the negative study. When next you are buying vitamin E make sure you do not buy tocopherol, choose tocotrienols. However, just in case there are mixed tocopherols and/or tocotrienol along with selenium may still be beneficial for the reduction of prostate cancer risk. Until that, the home delicacy of palm soup should be helpful.
NB:
Prof. Nyarkotey has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations to justify his write-ups. My articles are for educational purposes and do not serve as Medical advice for Treatment. I aim to educate the public about evidence-based scientific Naturopathic Therapies.
The Communications Manager of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Stanley Martey, has refuted claims that the company has disconnected water to schools within its Tema region.
The allegations suggested that several Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the Eastern Region and Accra, falling under the GWCL’s Tema region, including Ada SHS and Chemu SHS, had been disconnected by the GWCL.
In an interview with the media on Monday, Mr. Martey clarified that the company had not disconnected any schools thus far.
Instead, they had taken steps to demand payment for the outstanding amounts owed to them by the schools.
Mr. Martey emphasized that the GWCL does not typically disconnect schools as they are considered essential service providers.
However, if any SHS demonstrates a lack of cooperation in settling their bills, the company may resort to disconnection as a last resort.
He further explained that there were instances where the GWCL received communication from the secretariat handling the Free SHS program, instructing them to approach certain schools for payment, possibly indicating that the funds had been released to those schools.
In such cases, they would go to demand the outstanding amounts owed.
In summary, Mr. Martey clarified that the GWCL had not disconnected any schools in the region but had been actively pursuing the collection of outstanding dues from them.
The company’s policy is not to disconnect schools, but they may take such action if the schools persistently neglect their payment responsibilities.
“Per our standard operating procedures, we do not disconnect schools. Schools are classified as essential service providers, so we do not disconnect them. We only disconnect them when they have been recalcitrant in the payment of their bills or when they have deliberately refused to settle their bills.”
“Sometimes, we receive a communication from the secretariat that handles the Free SHS program, stating that we should go and disconnect some of the schools. This is perhaps because they have released some of the funds to them, so we go there to demand the money,” he stated.
In a heartbreaking tragedy, a father and his infant kid were buried after being electrocuted by a suspected malfunctioning water heater.
Charles Segbedzie-Pongo, 51, and his 4-year-old child, Fiifi Sefadzi Segbedzie-Pongo, tragically lost their lives in Tema a suburb of the Greater Accra region.
The final funeral rites were held on June 10, 2023, at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church Lorenz Wolf Parish in Tema Community 1.
The devastating incident occurred when the father and son went to take a shower.
The exact details of the said malfunctioning water heater are not yet known, but the incident serves as a reminder of the potential dangers posed by faulty electrical appliances.
The news of this tragic event spread rapidly, eliciting deep sorrow and empathy from the public. Kwame A Plus, musician cum politician, took to Facebook to express his condolences and raise awareness about the importance of regularly inspecting and maintaining water heaters. In his heartfelt post, he emphasized the gravity of the situation and the immense pain associated with such a tragedy.
“Father 51, son 4, went to shower. Faulty water heater. Both electrocuted. Everybody will die, but this is heartbreaking and painful; like, there are no words in any language to describe such a tragedy. Please check your water heater. It has destroyed many lives. It can end your life tragically. My condolence to their family and loved ones. May their souls rest in peace,” wrote Kwame A Plus.
As well as Media Personality Nana Aba Anamoah also wrote “Father and son electrocuted by a faulty water heater. So so sad.”
The electricity tariff goes up by 18.36%, while water tariffs will see a 19% increase. These adjustments are necessary due to the rising costs of production, according to the PURC.
The Regional Director of Operations for PURC, Alhaji Abubakari Jabari, explained in an interview with Starr News that customers who pay postpaid bills on June 1, 2023, will still be charged based on the old rates.
For most water bills, the old rate will continue to apply until consumption for the month of June, after which the new rate will be implemented.
Credit deposits made by customers will be calculated using the old rate until the end of the month, following which the new rate will be applied for subsequent billing cycles.
To address concerns about purchasing credits at the beginning of the month, Alhaji Abubakari Jabari advised against panicking or rushing to buy credits to mitigate the impact of the tariff adjustment.
He clarified that buying credits early in the month does not provide any specific advantages or discounts. Purchasing credits at any time during the month will be equivalent in terms of the billing calculation.
He urged consumers not to queue or rush to purchase credits on the first day of the month, assuring them that they would not miss out on any potential benefits by buying credits at a later time during the month.
Alhaji Abubakari Jabari also reassured consumers that their billing calculations would accurately reflect their consumption regardless of the date of purchase or falling within a specific usage bracket.
“I know most people go to buy their credit at the beginning of the month, I don’t see any point in that but people have the perception that if you buy credit in the first week of the month you might get some discount. You can’t force yourself to be within the lifeline, so any time you go to buy your credit, it is as good as buying in the first week or first day of the month. It’s a normal operational issue so we don’t expect people to go and cue today in trying to avoid the effect of any adjustment that has been done,” Alhaji Abubakari Jabari added.
“In taking this decision, the commission took cognizance of the cost of electricity, increased volume cost of chemicals for raw water treatment, the Ghana Cedi/US Dollar exchange rate and inflation,” PURC announced in a statement issued on Thursday, May 18.
“The Commission will continue to monitor the operations of the utility service providers to ensure value for money and quality service delivery,” it added.
During the same period, PURC has increased tariffs for electricity and natural gas by 18.36% across the board.
PURC explained that the decision was taken to balance the prevention of extended power outages and their adverse implications on jobs and livelihoods while minimizing the impact of rate increases on consumers.
The Quarterly Tariff Review Mechanism seeks to track and incorporate changes in key factors used in determining natural gas and electricity tariffs.
In order to provide sustainable and inclusive water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services throughout the nation, a new WaterAid Ghana Country Programme Strategy was unveiled in Accra.
Under the five-year strategy (2023-2028), priority will be placed on WASH across the health sector, strengthening the resilience of WASH to climate change, and achieving universal, sustainable and safe access to WASH.
The strategy aims at reaching one million people directly and four million indirectly with sustainable, safe and inclusive WASH behaviour in 10 focused districts of the Upper West and Upper East regions, with a particular focus on Bongo District.
It will also focus on securing and normalising clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene for everyone everywhere in Ghana.
The approaches adopted include strategic partnership and alliance building, advocacy and influencing, peace and security and gender equality and gender responsive WASH.
At the launch in Accra yesterday, the Country Director of WaterAid Ghana, Ewurabena Yanyi-Akofur, explained that the new strategy, known as the WaterAid Ghana’s Country Programme Strategy 7, was the result of months of consultation, research, and collaboration with its partners, stakeholders, and communities.
She expressed their desire to continuously partner the government, Civil Society Organisations, communities and other stakeholders to advocate WASH services for everyone.
She also expressed the hope that the team would work collaboratively to raise at least £12 million to implement the strategy over the next five years.
Mrs Yanyi-Akofur added that the new strategy embodied their commitment to strengthening the capacity of local authorities to expand and deliver water and sanitation services that were sustainable and equitable.
The Deputy Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Amidu Chinnia Issahaku, said the strategy provided a framework for concerted effort to secure and sustain the provision of WASH for everyone.
He said WaterAid Ghana CPS also aligned with Ghana’s national vision and commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Our vision for the WASH Sector should extend beyond the launch of strategies and programmes and rather envision a future where every person, regardless of their background, must have access to clean sources of water.
Collaboration
The Chief Executive Officer of Water Aid UK , Tim Wainwright, called for all hand to be desk to achieve a universal, sustainable and safe access to WASH.
The Regional Director for Water Aid West Africa, Dr Abdul-Nashiru Mohammed also expressed the hope for a time when WAG services would no longer be needed in the target communities.
A Ghanaian activist has decided to swim a 450km along the Volta River in what she hopes will bring some attention to a form of pollution in the water that has been overlooked by many, and for many years.
If successful, she hopes that the continuous textile’s pollution that has plagued Ghana’s rivers will be given some careful attention and, eventually, some redresses made towards them.
Speaking to the BBC’s Focus on Africa about her new challenge, Yvette said that one of her greatest joys in swimming in Africa, although it is not one of the continent’s biggest sports, is that she is able to draw a sizeable amount of attention to her activism.
She adds that many people get even more interested in her activism when they realise it is a woman doing so.
“For me, the experience of swimming is an absolute joy, and getting to swim in the rivers and different water bodies we have in Ghana is just a wonderful experience… but as close as I can come to sharing that experience, is I really wanted to share it with other people, and, the thing that swimming does is really bring attention to water, and water bodies, and water quality, and get people thinking about nature, and swimming and how it is.
“That is what I love about our expedition. It really is something that is so surprising, and exciting to people, and I say many times that when I was swimming in the middle of the Volta Lake, in the most remote areas, it was always very strange to feel very alone, but then, when we’ve been swimming past areas where people live… and then I could really see how people are excited about the project.
“And then there’s also this interesting gender-dynamics where not only are people surprised to see someone swimming, because it’s not familiar to swim as a leisure activity, but then also to see a woman swimming, and so it ends up being this really great entry point for them talking about why I’m swimming to bring attention to textile waste, and to think about the influx of second-hand clothing to Ghana,” she explained.
Yvette Tetteh, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Pure and Just Company Limited, a youth-powered agro-processing company catalysing African potential, also explained that what many people have not noticed is that Ghana’s water bodies contain a chunk of textiles waste.
She further stated that this waste situation is something that is prevalent in places like Accra, and she hopes her activism will bring some solutions to the continuous pollution.
“What we have found is that there is way more micro-fibres in the water than you would expect to see. The water bodies in Accra, for instance, the Korle Lagoon, have worrying large levels of micro-fibres, and in fact, you don’t even have to think of micro-fibres because you can literally see the textile waste in huge mounts in the water, to the side of the water, basically spilling over designated waste sites, and that’s been very clear in our research,” she added.
On behalf of his Minister, the deputy minister of sanitation, water, and resources, Amidu Chinnia Issahaku, has received the Danish ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Tom Noering, the Executive Vice President of GrundfosDenmark, Mr. Stephane Simonetta, and other officials at the ministry of sanitation’s conference hall.
The Minister noted in his Facebook post that Grundfos is a leading water technology company in Denmark but established an office in Ghana ten years ago and the Accra office also doubles as their West African office.
He recounted that, in April 2020, Grundfos and the ministry signed an MoU establishing cooperation relating to the implementation of solutions for sustainable water supply to the people of Ghana. The minister sighted.
He further stated the purpose of the meeting, “Today’smeeting was to review the progress of the MoU and to renew our commitment to fulfilling the content in the MoU”.
According to Hon. Issahaku, “The ultimate goal of the cooperation is for us to establish a public-private partnership for water service improvements and energy efficiency projects and also reach one million people through 300 small water systems”.
The Deputy Minister signed the renewal of the MoU on behalf of his boss and the Executive Vice President of Grundfos also signed on behalf of Grundfos Company Denmark.
The Weija dam will soon start spilling surplus water, thus the management of Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has warned residents within the area to evacuate.
GWCL noted that the level of the dam as of Friday, April 28, 2023, was 46ft, 1ft below the maximum safe operating level of 47ft.
This, the GWCL warned that it will not hesitate to open the spill gates, should the level go above 46.5ft, in order to avert any possible disaster.
In a statement, the Chief Manager, Public Relations and Communication of GWCL, Stanley Martey cautioned, “With the onset of the rains, Management of Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) wishes to inform the public, especially citizens living downstream of the Weija Dam, that it will begin spillage of excess water from the dam any time soon. The Management of GWCL is by this release sounding a word of caution to inhabitants downstream to evacuate the area to forestall any eventuality”.
“The level of the dam as of Friday 28th April 2023 is 46ft, 1ft below the maximum safe operating level of 47ft. The dam levels are monitored on an hourly basis and the GWCL will not hesitate to open the spill gates, should the level go above 46.5ft, so as not to compromise the integrity of the dam and to avert any disaster”.
GWCL in its statement added that the Municipal Assembly has also been informed to desilt the estuary to enable easy flow of the water into the sea.
“The Municipal Assembly has also been informed to desilt the estuary to enable easy flow of the water into the sea and to clear heaps of refuse along the course of the river. The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), National Security, Chiefs of Weija, Ogblogo, Tetegu, Weija, Gbawe, opinion leaders and all stakeholders including institutions and organizations who have properties downstream have been informed of the development and current situation at the dam,” GWCL said in its statement.
Communities likely to be affected include Tetegu, Oblogo, Pambros Salt, Lower McCarthy Hill, Lower Weija, Bojo Beach, Adakope and surrounding communities.
Read below GWCL’s full statement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: 28th APRIL 2023
ATTN: NEWS EDITOR
WEIJA DAM WATER SPILLAGE EARLY WARNING
With the onset of the rains, Management of Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) wishes to inform the public, especially citizens living downstream of the Weija Dam, that it will begin spillage of excess water from the dam any time soon.
The level of the Dam as of Friday 28th April 2023 is 46ft, 1ft below the maximum safe operating level of 47ft. The dam levels are monitored on an hourly basis and the GWCL will not hesitate to open the spill gates, should the level go above 46.5ft, so as not to compromise the integrity of the dam and to avert any disaster.
The Management of GWCL is by this release sounding a word of caution to inhabitants downstream to evacuate the area to forestall any eventuality. The Municipal Assembly has also been informed to desilt the estuary to enable easy flow of the water into the sea and to clear heaps of refuse along the course of the river. The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), National Security, Chiefs of Weija, Ogblogo, Tetegu, Weija, Gbawe, opinion leaders and all stakeholders including institutions and organizations who have properties downstream have been informed of the development and current situation at the dam.
The communities likely to be affected include Tetegu, Oblogo, Pambros Salt, Lower McCarthy Hill, Lower Weija, Bojo Beach, Adakope and surrounding communities.
Management of GWCL expects that the public will be supportive in this exercise to avoid a reoccurrence of the disaster that has occurred in the past.
Stanley Martey (Chief Manager, PR & Communication)
Fameye, a Ghanaian artist, said that he received GHC25,000 in damages after a petrol station filled his 2019 Honda Pilot Touring with fuel laced with water.
Ghanaian singer Fameye has revealed that he has been compensated with the amount of GHC25,000 for damages after a fuel station filled his Honda pilot touring 2019 model with fuel mixed with water.
Fameye was not a happy man some weeks ago after the unscrupulous actions of a fuel station he purchased fuel from.
According to Fameye, fuel that was bought to fill the tank of his 2019 Honda pilot touring was diluted with water and the action affected the engine of his vehicle.
The obviously pent up and frustrated music artiste took to Twitter to share his dilemma with the public hoping for a possible solution.
“So few days ago ,I go buy fuel for one fuel station,700 cedis,the rest is heartbreaking They filled my tank with water mixed with petrol as I’m talking to you now my car Honda pilot touring 2019 model is spoilt Spent 7k already still not working!!! What do I do?,” he tweeted.
However, speaking in an interview on TV3 New Day, the “Nothing I Get” revealed he was compensated GHC25,000 for damages and that although his car is back to normal and working well he is still saddened by the entire situation.
The National Petroleum Authority, the statutory Agency regulating, overseeing, and monitoring the petroleum downstream industry in Ghana has over the years warned fuel stations to desist from infusing water into their products.
It has gone further to close down fuel stations caught in the act but the trend continues to be on the rise.
The Volta Region’s Chiefs and People of Abutia in the Ho West District have urged the government to address the severe water shortage problem in the region.
Despite being a popular town close to Ho, the Volta Regional capital, access to potable water is a mirage.
The community has no running water.
The Paramount Chief of the Area, Togbega Abutia Kodzo Gidi, says water scarcity poses a major threat to the socio-economic livelihoods and health of his people.
Togbega Gidi made this known at the climax of their annual Asafotu Festival at Abutia-Teti.
Currently, the Ghana Water Company does not supply the area with potable water despite being a few kilometers away from its pipelines at Sokode, Abutia’s neighbouring community.
Over the years, boreholes and streams have been the source of water supply for the thousands of residents there.
Togbega Abutia Kodzo Gidi said the available sources of water supply cannot meet the demands of the Community, amidst an increasing population.
He said, ”the cost of regular maintenance on the boreholes has also become a challenge.”
Togbega Gidi therefore stressed the need for the government to intervene with the extension of Ghana Water Company’s pipelines as the major source of water supply to Abutia.
One of the most important elements to prepare a dish is salt. It enhances the flavor of everything.
The majority of us are guilty of oversalting the dishes we prepare while cooking or getting carried away or using the wrong figures.
This post is for you if you’ve ever been in a situation like this and couldn’t figure out how to get out of it. This scenario can be fixed while maintaining its flavor. Here are some suggestions for adjusting salty meals.
Add more water
If you’ve added excess salt to your rice, soup, or stew, adding more water will significantly help. Adding water might make your dish a bit watery, but it becomes thicker when it stays on fire and reduces the saltiness. Doing this makes you get the desired consistency and still correct the taste.
Fight it with sugar
Adding sugar or other sugary content to your salty meals helps to complement or counter their saltiness. You can add honey or brown sugar to also help maintain its flavour.
Increase the ingredients
If you have ever found yourself over-seasoning your food and still have extra ingredients on the ground, the best solution is to increase the portion size of your meal. Make a new meal from scratch, then add salty food to get your desired flavour.
Add acidic content
The acidic content refers to lemon, orange, vinegar, or citric acid. Adding acid to your dish moderately helps to balance the saltiness of a meal. You need to ensure that you add only a little content to avoid your meals’ sour taste.
Use creamy ingredients
These creamy ingredients are fats that might not reduce the saltiness, but it performs the role of a bud taste barrier by coating the tongue to make the salty flavour impotent. These creamy ingredients can be dairy products like milk. To replace dairy products, you can add mashed avocados. This will help to hide the salt and also add richness.
Rinse with water
You can reduce the salt content from your meal by rinsing it repeatedly. However, there are exceptions to this hack. You can only rinse foods that wouldn’t dissolve in water immediately, like rice, yam, and potatoes. Meat can also be rinsed or added to your stew without adding any seasoning when it is being cooked.
Two siblings, 9 and 11-year-old have reportedly met their untimely death at Babasdongo nearBortianorin Accra after drowning during Tuesday morning’s rains.
Their mother, identified as Sister Ama, said the water destroyed their single self-contained.
She disclosed that her three children were carried away by the flooding water as a portion of the structure collapsed.
Ama says she was saved together with one of her children by a good samaritan as the other two drowned.
“I could see my children going but I could not do anything,” she said while wailing.
A resident, Kofi Nyantakyi saw the first dead body and also a co-tenant of the victims.
He indicated that the victim’s father decided to park his car at a good place and return for the kids but was too late.
Residents of Dida, a farming community in the Atwima-Kwanwoma District, have appealed to the government to extend the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area Water and Sanitation Project (GKMA-SWP) to the community.
This is to help curb the severe sanitation problem facing the people in the community.
Some of the residents, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency, during a visit expressed worry about the current state of the only public pit latrine in the community.
The toilet had been full for some years, and the wood serving as support to the pit latrine appears weak, while the stench and heat emanating from the end is enough to deter community members from using the structure.
The streets of the community during the visit by the GNA showed calmness, but the residents shared worrying experiences of sanitation challenges, especially access to toilet facilities in the community.
Madam Akua Pokuaa, a 40-year-old drinking bar operator, said her most worry had been the fact that, everyone without a toilet in the home visited the same old pit latrine.
“I am really worried, all of us, men, women and children defecate on this wooden structure. It does not give us (women) privacy at all. You will be here, and you see that a man wants to come in here too. Most of the households, I know just do it in a polythene bag and throw it away, or we go to the bush and do it freely,” she told the GNA.
She said there had been a couple of times she had contracted infections from the use of the pit latrine.
Madam Pokuaa pleaded with the government to consider the community and provide toilets that could improve the sanitation conditions in the area.
A 63-year-old Maame Akua Bema told the GNA that her age did not favour the use of such a toilet facility.
“Mostly I walk for about 10 minutes before I can use this toilet.
She said the facility was not good for the aged and children.
“Our grandchildren of school going age must hang on to this risky thing. Don’t you think a child can fall in this one day,” she quizzed.
Maame Bema indicated that, to avoid disgrace sometimes, she had to defecate in polythene bags and throw it away in the refuse dumps.
The GNA gathered that the school in the community also had no place of convenience and school children had to defecate in bushes near the school.
Papa Kwadwo, a 12-year-old basic six pupil said he had to go the bush because there was no place for him to go.
Mr. Ernest Boakye, the District Environmental Officer, collaborated the concerns of the people and said about 25 per cent of the 234,836 people in 64 communities in the districts, practice open defecation.
He pointed out that, lack of toilet facilities was a serious challenge in the settlements of the one of the peri-urban districts in the Ashanti region.
Mr Boakye said the government needed to extend the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area Water and Sanitation Project (GKMA-SWP), a project meant to increase access to improved sanitation and water supply, to such areas to improve sanitary conditions.
He said the communities would embrace the World Bank- Government of Ghana subsided project, stressing that peri-urban communities needed such interventions the most.
“The peri-urban districts need the facilities the most, because there are a lot of people in the communities that cannot build toilets by themselves but with the subsided projects, community members can own toilets in the homes”.
According to the officer, pit latrine had a lot of health implications, including typhoid infections, offensive odour to the community and disease infections to ladies, especially.
They also served as a harbouring place for reptiles which could be very serious.
Mr Boakye said the extension of the project to the district would help encourage residents to build toilet facilities in their homes and help the district assembly to strengthen its sanitation bylaws in the communities.
Many South Africans, who already struggle without electricity for hours on end, now also have to go without water as power failures batter the delivery system.
A power failure at a pump station feeding reservoirs and water towers caused taps to run dry in parts of Johannesburg and Pretoria, provincial utility Rand Water said this week.
This further aggravated residents who for months have had to plan mundane activities such as cooking and do laundry based on a daily blackout schedule.
Thomas Mabasa, a rail worker, said he had taken to showering at work — a luxury not afforded to his children.
“(They) have to go to school without bathing,” the 43-year-old told AFP.
He was among frustrated locals who took to the streets in Soshanguve, a township north of the capital, this week to protest the situation.
Demonstrators disrupted traffic, blocking roads with stones and waste.
“Sometimes we wait to see if the water will come back in the middle of the night to wake the kids up so they can shower before it runs out again,” Mabasa said, as tyres burned on the street behind him.
Theft and vandalism
Africa’s most industrialised economy has been crippled by record power cuts in the past year, as troubles at debt-laden state energy firm Eskom worsened.
The utility provides about 90 percent of the country’s electricity.
But for years it has failed to keep pace with demand as it struggles to maintain its ageing coal-powered infrastructure.
Water and sanitation ministry spokeswoman, Wisane Mavasa said the government was working with water utilities “to improve the situation”.
“(The) energy crisis is impacting the water infrastructure,” she said.
One problem is that machinery is constantly being restarted because of power cuts, and this accelerates breakdowns, the government said.
Pump stations and water-treatment, which need a steady flow of power to work properly, have been badly impacted, it said.
Criminality has also contributed to the crisis, with Johannesburg’s municipality saying hundreds of water tanks were stolen or vandalised in 2022.
Water-scarce country
Hospitals and schools have not been spared.
Kalafong hospital in Pretoria, endured two days of no water at the weekend.
Journalism student Ethel Malatji, 21, said her and colleagues at the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria were unable to cook, clean or bathe.
“We don’t even have water to drink,” she said. Her studies have also been disrupted by protesters burning tyres on a road she crosses to access part of the campus, she said.
The problems have especially hit Johannesburg’s Gauteng province, but not exclusively.
Cape Town has had to close some of its beaches due to a sewage spill following electrical faults at some of its sewer stations.
Increasing demand has also put a strain on supply in the country’s southeast forcing authorities to implement water rationing.
That might become more common if energy and infrastructure problems are not addressed, said Dewald van Niekerk, who heads the African Centre for Disaster Studies at North-West University.
“Electricity needs to drive those pumps,” said van Niekerk.
South Africa — an already water-scarce country — is set to experience extreme drought conditions in the next few years with the expected return of the El Nino warm weather pattern, he warned.
Drinking water immediately after a meal can be detrimental to health.
And a lot of things have been said about the time and the amount of water you should be having before, during and after meals.
But according to experts and nutritionists, it’s not a great idea to sip water while eating or immediately before or after meals.
The problem is that when you drink water too soon before or after a meal, it dilutes your essential gastric juices, causing difficulty in digestion and an upsurge in insulin levels.
When food remains undigested in our stomach, it can be harmful to the body, leading to several health problems, such as an increase in uric acid levels, high cholesterol, high triglyceride levels – a major cause of heart diseases – obesity, diabetes, etc.
Experts recommend a 30-minute window both before and after meals.
The bottom line is that while it is important to keep yourself hydrated by drinking enough water every day, you should also know how long you will need to wait to drink before or after having a meal.
Like the floods of Accra that have become a perennial occurrence, residents of Weija have once again had to wake up to the devastating effects of the spillage of the Weija Dam by the Ghana Water Company Limited.
The annual spillage of the dam is meant to release excess water from the dam.
The maximum level of water the dam is built to hold is about 46 feet, but the level came up to 48 feet, thereby threatening its safety, hence the decision to spill.
Residents have been forced to move around in canoes, as many houses have been completely submerged under the water.
GhanaWeb has been to the area and has captured videos of the extent of damage caused after the spillage of the dam on Monday, October 3, 2022.
Meanwhile, the management of the GWCL has assured the public that despite the challenges, it is in control and has put in measures to ameliorate the situation to minimize the impact on consumers.
The management explained further, “the Weija dam is currently at a level of 49.5ft as against the maximum operating level of 48ft. Spillage normally begins when the level gets to 46.5ft. As a result, four (4) spill gates have been opened to safeguard the integrity of the dam, save the dam from collapse, and save lives and properties.”
Watch the latest episode of The Lowdown below:
The Lowdown: Role of the diaspora in the development of Africa
CEO of the Aaron Manvel Foundation Millie Lorene Tucker and Gary Hope, the CEO of FLCC – Bring Back Hope Foundation underscore the need for the African diaspora to help develop the continent in this episode of The Lowdown on GhanaWeb TV. According to the women trying to make and create a change in Ghana, our forefathers were sold away and made to develop strange lands. Thus, coming back home and developing their home country is the best thing to do especially when resources are available.
Some residents of Weija and its environs in the Weija/Gbawe Constituency are displaced following the spillage of the Weija Dam by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL).
Some videos and photos available to GhanaWeb show that most homes within the catchment area have been flooded.
Some residents who spoke to GhanaWeb on the condition of anonymity say they were not informed by GWCL of the spillage that occurred early Monday, October 3, 2022.
The annual spillage of the dam by Ghana Water Company Limited is meant to release excess water from the dam.
The maximum level of water the dam is built to hold is about 46 feet, but the level came up to 48 feet, thereby threatening its safety, hence the decision to spill.
Meanwhile, the GWCL has indicated that the recent spillage was brought about following the recent heavy rains but “it is in control”.
GWCL said, the situation has gravely affected its operations leading to “considerable havoc to some water treatment plants” across the country.
The management of the GWCL assured the public that despite the challenges, it is in control and has put in measures to ameliorate the situation to minimize the impact on consumers.
The management explained further, “the Weija dam is currently at a level of 49.5ft as against the maximum operating level of 48ft. Spillage normally begins when the level gets to 46.5ft. As a result, four (4) spill gates have been opened to safeguard the integrity of the dam, save the dam from collapse, and save lives and properties.”
A Vietnamese woman claims to have given up solid food over four decades ago and survived on water spiked with a bit of salt, sugar and lemon juice ever since.
63-year-old Ms. Ngon is famous in her native Tan Trach commune, Vietnam’s Long An province, for her very unique diet. For the last 41 years, she has allegedly been living on water with a few grams of salt and sugar, as well as a bit of lemon juice, completely shunning all other nutrients. She not only appears to be in tip-top shape for her age, but she is in great health, is always full of energy and can execute Yoga poses that people decades younger than her wouldn’t even dream of attempting. She considers water vital to her health in the same way that watering is to a tree.
Ms. Ngon used to eat rice and other solid foods until the age of 21, when she started dealing with serious health problems. Her vision started deteriorating, her stomach ached constantly and she would vomit on a daily basis. Blood tests revealed that she suffered from a blood disease. After attempting the prescribed treatment without seeing any significant improvement to her health, she decided to quit her medication, thinking she didn’t have long to live.
That’s when a doctor allegedly came to her and advised her to start drinking water mixed with a bit of salt and sugar and quit eating solid foods. He told her he could squeeze some fruit juice in the water if she wanted, but nothing else. The mystery man told her that following this diet would help save her vision and maybe even cure her blood disease, but he insisted that she never reveal his name to anyone, because the method was completely unscientific and people would criticize him for it.
The woman kept her promise even after her benefactor passed away. No one, not even her family knows his name, and no one ever will. The one thing she can say is that his advice worked, and she is living proof of that. However, she doesn’t recommend the water-based diet to anyone, because she acknowledges that it can be dangerous. She considers her case a miracle, and credits her religious beliefs for the diet’s success.
Ms. Ngog recalled that when she started living exclusively on water, 41 years ago, her family was completely against it, accusing her of wanting to starve herself to death. At one point, they threatened to go on a hunger strike with her, so they could die together, but she managed to convince them that she wasn’t trying to end her life, but that the exact opposite was true. When her health started improving, they stopped asking her to eat regular food.
The 63-year-old admitted that living on water alone can get a little boring from time to time, even when adding a few drops of fruit juice to give it a bit of flavor. She sometimes takes a sugar cube in her mouth and drinks water to disolve it, just as a way of spicing things up.
After her health improved as a result of switching to a water diet, Ms. Ngog started her journey of trying to become a physician. She is currently a member of the Long An Acupuncture Association, is a Yoga teacher and is an advocate for yoga and exercise. She considers her dedication to promoting an active and healthy life a “payback” to the doctor who once saver her life.
In the past, we’ve covered several people with such unusual diets – a man who claimed to live exclusively on tree leaves and grass, a breatharian who only survived on “energy”, and a man who lives on beer alone for Lent.
Spend more than a few minutes soaking in a bath or paddling around a swimming pool and your fingers will undergo a dramatic transformation. Where there were once delicate whorls of lightly ridged epidermis, engorged folds of ugly pruned skin will now be found.
This striking change is familiar yet also baffling. Only the skin on our fingers and toes wrinkle when immersed in water, while other body parts such as our forearms, torso, legs and face remain no more crinkled than before they were submerged.
This water-induced wrinkling of skin on our fingertips and toes has occupied the thoughts and work of scientists for decades. Most have puzzled over what causes this puckering in the first place, but more recently the question of why, and what purpose it may serve, has attracted the attention of researchers. Perhaps more intriguing still, however, is what our shriveled fingers can reveal about our own health.
It takes around 3.5 minutes in warm water 40C (104F) is considered the optimal temperature for your fingertips to begin wrinkling, while in cooler temperatures of about 20C (68F) it can take up to 10 minutes. Most studies have found it takes around 30 minutes of soaking time to reach maximum wrinklage, however.
Fingertip wrinkling was commonly thought to be a passive response where the upper layers of the skin swelled as water flooded into the cells via a process known as osmosis where water molecules move across a membrane to equalise the concentration of the solutions on either side. But as long ago as 1935, scientists have suspected there is more to the process than this.
Doctors studying patients with injuries that had severed the median nerve one of the main nerves that run down the arm to the hand found that their fingers did not wrinkle. Among its many roles, the median nerve helps to control so-called sympathetic activities such as sweating and the constriction of blood vessels. Their discovery suggested that the water-induced wrinkling of fingertips was in fact controlled by the nervous system.
The skin on our feet and hands shrivel and wrinkle in the bath, while other parts of our body do not undergo the same transformation
The skin on our feet and hands shrivel and wrinkle in the bath, while other parts of our body do not undergo the same transformation (Credit: Andrii Biletskyi/Alamy)
Then in 2003, neurologists Einar Wilder-Smith and Adeline Chow, who were working at the National University Hospital in Singapore at the time, took measurements of blood circulation in the hands of volunteers as they soaked them in water. They found that as the skin on the volunteers’ fingertips began to wrinkle, there was a significant drop in blood flow in the fingers.
When they applied a local anesthetic cream that caused the blood vessels in the fingers of healthy volunteers to temporarily constrict, they found it produced similar levels of wrinkling as water immersion.
“It makes sense when you look at your fingers when they go wrinkly,” says Nick Davis, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University, who has studied fingertip wrinkling. “The finger pads go pale and that is because the blood supply is being constricted away from the surface.”
Wilder-Smith and his colleagues proposed that when our hands are immersed in water, the sweat ducts in our fingers open up to allow water in, which leads to an imbalance in the salts in our skin. This change in the salt balance triggers the firing of nerve fibres in the fingers, leading to the blood vessels around the sweat ducts to constrict. This in turn causes a loss of volume in the fleshy area of the fingertip, which pulls the overlying skin downwards so that it distorts into wrinkles. The pattern of the wrinkles depends on the way the outermost layer of skin the epidermis is anchored to the layers beneath it.
There have also been suggestions that the outer layers of skin may also swell a little to enhance the wrinkling. By osmosis alone, however, our skin would need to swell by 20% to achieve the wrinkles we see in our fingers, which would leave them hideously enlarged. But when the upper layers of skin swell slightly and the lower levels shrink at the same time, the wrinkling becomes pronounced far sooner, says Pablo Saez Viñas, a biomechanical engineer at the Technical University of Catalonia, who has used computer modelling to examine the mechanism.
“You need both to have normal levels of wrinkles,” he says. “If you don’t have that neurological response, which happens in some individuals, wrinkles are inhibited.”
But if wrinkling is controlled by our nerves, it means our bodies are actively reacting to being in water. “That means it is happening for a reason,” says Davis. “And that means it could be giving us an advantage.”
Water-induced wrinkles may have given our ancestors better grip when walking on wet rocks or foraging for shellfish
It was a question from one of his children during a bath about why their fingers had gone wrinkly that recently led Davis to dig into what this advantage could be. With the help of 500 volunteers who visited the Science Museum in London during 2020, Davis measured how much force they needed to use to grip a plastic object. Perhaps unsurprisingly, those with dry, unwrinkled hands needed to use less force than people whose hands were wet so their grip on the object was better. But when they submerged their hands in a water bath for a few minutes to turn their hands wrinkly, the grip force fell between the two even though their hands were still wet.
“The results were amazingly clear,” says Davis. “The wrinkling increased the amount of friction between the fingers and the object. What is particularly interesting is that our fingers are sensitive to this change in the surface friction and we use this information to apply less force to grip an object securely.”
The object that Davis’ volunteers were gripping weighed less than a couple of coins, so the amount of grip required was small. But when performing more arduous tasks in a wet environment, this difference in friction could become more important.
“If you don’t have to squeeze as hard to grip something, the muscles in your hands get less tired and so you can do it for longer,” he says.
His findings match those by other researchers who have found that the wrinkling of our fingertips makes it easier for us to handle wet objects. In 2013, a team of neuroscientists at Newcastle University in the UK asked volunteers to transfer glass marbles of varying sizes and fishing weights from one container to another. In one case the objects were dry, and in the other they were at the bottom of a container filled with water. It took 17% longer for the participants to transfer the submerged objects with unwrinkled fingers than when they were dry. But when their fingers were wrinkled, they could transfer the submerged marbles and weights 12% quicker than when their fingers were wet and unwrinkled. Interestingly, there was no difference in transferring the dry objects with wrinkled or unwrinkled fingers.
There are other baffling mysteries women take longer to develop wrinkles than men do
This suggests that humans may have evolved fingertip and toe wrinkling at some point in our past to help us grip wet objects and surfaces.
“Since it seems to give better grip under water, I would assume that it has to do with either locomotion in very wet conditions or potentially with manipulating objects under water,” says Tom Smulders, an evolutionary neuroscientist at Newcastle University who led the 2013 study. It could have given our ancestors a key advantage when it came to walking over wet rocks or gripping branches, for example. Alternatively, it could have helped us when catching or foraging for food such as shellfish.
“The latter would imply it is unique to humans, whereas if it’s the former, we would expect it to happen in other primates as well,” says Smulders. Finger wrinkling has yet to be observed in our closest relatives in the primate world such as chimpanzees, but the fingers of Japanese macaque monkeys, which are known to bath for long periods in hot water, have been seen to also wrinkle after they have been submerged in water. But the lack of evidence in other primates does not mean it doesn’t happen, it may simply be because no-one has looked closely enough yet, says Smulders. “We don’t know the answer to this question yet.”
There are some other interesting clues about when this adaptation may have appeared in our species. Fingertip wrinkling is less pronounced in saltwater and takes longer than it does in freshwater. This is probably because the salt gradient between the skin and surrounding environment is lower in saltwater, and so the salt imbalance that triggers the nerve fibres is less dramatic. So, it could be an adaptation that helped our ancestors live in freshwater environments rather than along coastlines.
Only one other primate has so far been found to have water-induced wrinkling of the fingers
Only one other primate has so far been found to have water-induced wrinkling of the fingers Japanese macaques (Credit: Benjamin Torode/Getty Images)
Strangely there are other baffling mysteries  women take longer to develop wrinkles than men do, for example. And why exactly does our skin return to its normal state normally after 10-20 minutes if there is no clear disadvantage to our grip on dry objects of having wrinkly fingertips? Surely if having wrinkly fingers can improve our grip in the wet, but not harm it when dry, why would our fingertips not be permanently wrinkly?
One reason for that could be the change in sensation the wrinkling also causes. Our fingertips are packed with nerves, and the pruning of our skin changes the way we feel things we touch (although one study has shown it does not affect our ability to discriminate between objects based on touch).
“Some people have a real aversion to it because picking something up with wrinkly fingers feels weird,” says Davis. “It could be because the balance of skin receptors have changed position, but there could be a psychological dimension too. It would be fun to investigate why. There could be other things we can do less well with wrinkly fingers.”
Unsymmetrical wrinkling of the fingers where one hand wrinkles less than the other despite the same immersion time has even been suggested as an early sign of Parkinson’s disease as it indicates the sympathetic nervous system is not functioning correctly on one side of the body.
So, while the question of why our fingers and toes began wrinkling in water in the first place remains open, our pruney digits are proving useful to doctors in other surprising ways.
